OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — The Oktibbeha County board of supervisors approved Tuesday a set of agreements with Starkville that would clear the way for the construction of a $10 million hotel off Highway 12.
The city and county are partnering to provide a combined $1 million in tax rebates for a Candlewood Suites branch with 85 rooms situated between Academy Sports and the Hollywood Premier Cinema. Construction projections given to Starkville suggest the hotel could be open for business as early as 2026.
“We got a good deal, with everything getting so competitive now,” said District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer. “Businesses don’t have to come into your community. … But there’s always a need for more lodging. This is a great incentive to provide this company, and if they don’t produce their end of the bargain we don’t lose anything.”
Those tax incentives would stay in place for up to 12 years after the hotel opens, unless they reach the $1 million threshold early. The county’s rebates come out of only its ad valorem (property) taxes, while the city is committing funds from both ad valorem and sales tax.
The county and city would also continue collecting taxes on the existing property value of the lot, with the agreed rebates only affecting new value gained as the property is developed.
The Golden Triangle Development LINK estimated Starkville has a 300 hotel room shortage.
The county would fund its rebate through its general fund levy only, with its special levies – for things like roads and bridges, OCH Regional Medical Center and East Mississippi Community College – not included.
County rebates would come to an estimated $38,000 per year, at least at the start, County Administrator Wayne Carpenter told The Dispatch Tuesday. The city’s rebates, which will include 50% of net new sales tax and all net new property tax at the site, is estimated to average $58,000 throughout the life of the deal.
Carpenter did caution that these numbers are just estimates, and could vary significantly depending on what the final assessment of the land is and what the specifics of the hotel development wind up being.
“I don’t want to call it guessing, but we don’t know what the final plan for Candlewood Suites is,” he said. “Is it $10 million? Is it $8 million? Is it $12 million? This is all calculated at around $10.5 million, but depending on what the final value is all these numbers will change accordingly.”
The measure now returns to the Starkville board of aldermen for cosigning. Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch Tuesday that the item is already on the board’s agenda for its next meeting Dec. 17, and she doesn’t anticipate any obstacles to its approval. That puts it on track to meet the proponent’s goal of having everything signed before the end of the year.
“We’ll take that up on our next meeting,” she said. “We had a unanimous vote for that at the last executive session that dealt with that and so I have every expectation it will be approved. … I really appreciate the county working with us on these projects.”
Relief on the way for dust-choked residents
Oktibbeha’s supervisors also voted unanimously to approve a new pilot program combating dust on heavily populated gravel roads.
Several residents spoke at a meeting earlier this month, claiming that inhaling dust that traffic kicks up on gravel roads has caused extensive health issues for themselves and others.
While the coming four-year road plan includes paving some of the worst areas, the Oktibbeha roads department is looking toward dust suppressants in the meantime.
The county will purchase enough dust suppressant material to treat three roads as a test, starting on Clifford Lane. It and other roads branching off Rockhill Road are some of the most affected areas, being unpaved, heavily trafficked and heavily populated with houses stationed close to the road.
“If this works well, I’d say we should buy a pull-behind spreader that we can put behind a tractor,” road manager Victor Collins said Tuesday. “Until we’ve tried it we’ll just use a seed spreader.”
While the application would be a step forward for residents that told The Dispatch they felt abandoned by their representatives, they’ll still have to wait at least several months to see action. Collins told the board that he’d have to wait for the right weather to apply the treatment, estimating that their application would come in late spring 2025.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
