Well, if anyone asked for a cold winter, they sure got their wish for 2017-18.
The fall season is just barely behind us and we’re already seeing forecasts for temperatures in the teens over the next 10 days.
The weather might be chilly, but the U.S. economy seems to be red hot, adding 228,000 jobs in November, followed by the sweeping tax reform bill – for better or worse – in December.
If the good times are about to roll, there is no reason why Sunflower County cannot ride this wave of economic success to one or more economic development wins during 2018.
There are a lot of reasons to be excited about our chances in the next 12 months.
We probably will not get a 2,000-job manufacturing project this year, simply because we haven’t laid the groundwork for such a deal, but we are poised to get interest from some smaller and some mid-tier projects that could bring 25-100 good-paying jobs to the county.
Before you sneeze, that’s nothing to sneeze at.
There is another sector outside of manufacturing that Indianola could capitalize on in the next year to 18 months.
That is warehouse distribution.
For the first time in a long time, online retail hit a huge public relations snag at the Christmas season, with countless presents bought through Amazon trapped in logistics instead of sitting wrapped under Christmas trees on December 25.
I was one of those customers, as was my brother who bought most of his presents through Prime this year but had several still in shipment on Christmas Day.
I predict that Amazon will ramp up its expansion throughout the United States in order to avoid future logistical nightmares like it had in 2017. Others will follow suit.
As online retailers grab more of the market, the demand for warehouse industrial space and distribution centers is going to grow.
Sunflower County is not going to get Amazon’s HQ2, but it could be positioned to get a distribution center.
The city has a rich distribution past, with other retailers like SuperValu and Dollar General already having a footprint in the area.
We have four-lane access in U.S. 49 and U.S. 82.
We have rail infrastructure, and we have both port and air access within just a few miles.
Amazon is the big fish in the online retail pond right now, but there will be countless numbers of retailers who will be competing to meet the demands of online shoppers.
Their success in the future depends on them having the ability to get packages to people as quickly as possible.
With corporate tax rates set to drop sharply in 2018, and the incentives that are already available to companies looking to locate in Mississippi, any community with a sizable piece of land to market would be smart to at least make the proper preparations for requests for information.
We should not put all of our eggs in that basket. We need to have a healthy diversified economic development strategy, but that is an opportunity I see coming down the line that could be perfect for our area.
