Steve Rosenthal knows a thing or two about development in Sunflower County.
He’s spent the last quarter of a century working in both the public and private sectors to build and recruit here.
Rosenthal is probably best known for the dozen years he spent as Indianola’s mayor, but most recently, he was hired as the Sunflower County Economic Development Director.
Leading the county seat’s municipal government comes with economic development experience of its own, but that was far from the only box Rosenthal checked off when the county was considering him for the new post.
“I’ve been in residential real estate for 25 years,” Rosenthal said. “I was in commercial real estate for 10 of those 25. I was always developing stuff in Indianola.”
Rosenthal’s interest in improving life in his hometown goes back a lot further than 25 years.
He grew up in the middle of Indianola’s retail scene, where he learned that he had a knack for sales.
In college, Rosenthal earned a degree in industrial engineering.
Back in the 1970s, Rosenthal helped to spearhead the start of the B.B. King Homecoming Festival, which launched in 1980 and continued for decades afterward.
“It just brought activity to Indianola,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal continued to work with the local Chamber and civic organizations to help keep business strong in the city.
By 2010, Rosenthal was already active in municipal government, and that culminated in his first election win as mayor.
He led day-to-day operations at city hall, but there was always an economic development aspect to his job.
“I felt like it was a big portion, if not the majority of the responsibility,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal went on to earn the highest ranking in economic development through 60 course hours with the Mississippi Municipal League, and he’s also personally taken multiple workforce development classes through the Capps Center in Indianola.
When the county decided to fill the economic developer position this past fall, Rosenthal did not hesitate.
“Once I saw the ad, it really spurred my interest in it,” he said.
Rosenthal said he has gone to work in the past month or so educating himself on the assets throughout the entire county, whether it be industrial, small business, education or health care related.
He also wants to better educate potential companies and site selectors about what is available in Sunflower County.
“I’ve always been one to look at things and repurpose it, and I see economic development in any area, but especially in the Mississippi Delta, taking what we have and repurposing it to meet the needs of ongoing businesses and showing them that we may not have X, but we have A, B and C here, and you can make it do just as good as X will,” he said.
Rosenthal said that Gov. Tate Reeves has made clear that the development of shovel-ready sites is a priority, and he hopes he can take advantage of this push to bring more site development to the county.
“I do think land, as a whole, is another big asset that we have,” Rosenthal said. “We may not have as good of industrial parks as some other areas, but we have so much more developable areas than these other places…I look to try to redevelop some of our current sites, even if it is to the point of removing some of the buildings that just don’t qualify for any of our prospectives. In this day and age right now, most of these companies would rather come in to a shovel-ready location.”
Rosenthal told the Indianola Rotary Club and the Indianola Lions Club in January that he wants to shift from the traditional “trotline” approach to economic development and try a more “fly fishing” approach.
He hopes to target certain companies and industries, distribution and warehouse in particular.
“We are really set for it today, especially in the next 10 years and the growth of Highway 61 and this bypass,” he said. It will set us a step above a lot of locations.”
Rosenthal said that in five years, he would like to see at least five 50-job operations new to Sunflower County, representing hundreds of new jobs in diverse businesses.
“I would feel like I met a 10-year goal in five years,” Rosenthal said.
In the meantime, Rosenthal said he will continue to work with local schools, from K-12 to college, to help ensure local citizens are ready for the jobs of tomorrow.
“I was always involved with the local schools,” Rosenthal said. “I knew the only way the Delta, especially Sunflower County, was going to prosper, was to have our citizens ready to go to work…I needed to make sure our people knew what it took to be employable.”
That’s still the mission, perhaps even more focused now for Rosenthal than ever before.
