Business Blog

Oregon-based plywood panel producer Natron Wood Products is moving into a vacant 250,000 square-foot building in Louisville and will create 200 new jobs as it begins operations. The plant represents a $10 million investment by Natron Wood Products, Gov. Phil Bryant said Monday at an official announcement of the plant in Louisville. Natron Wood’s Winston [...]

JACKSON — Canadian energy company Encana estimates a new 80 percent state tax cut will save it up to $800,000 a year in oil and natural gas extraction taxes on wells it puts into production after July 1 in Southwest Mississippi’s Tuscaloosa Marine Shale development. Encana has six deep ground horizontal wells in the Tuscaloosa [...]

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — Energy exploration companies that do horizontal drilling in Mississippi will pay  80 percent less in taxes next year   on oil and gas they extract. The prospect of an economic bonanza from extracting shale oil from below ground in Mississippi, especially  the southwest part of the state, led Gov. Phil Bryant to make [...]

Pensacola, Fla.-based Crown Health Care Laundry Services Inc. will set up laundry processing operations in Columbia, a move that will create about 150 jobs for the South Mississippi community. The company, which provides specialized laundry services and linen rentals to the health care industry, will make a $6 million investment to establish the Columbia operations. [...]

A forum titled “Commercial Real Estate an Economic Forecast” is on tab Thursday afternoon at the Mississippi Association of Realtors headquarters at 4274 Lakeland Drive. The forum presented by the Mississippi CCIM Chapter includes a panel discussion by Fountain Barksdale, Bank Plus; Jonathan Gould, Stonemar Realty; Paul Gunn, Watkins Eager Law Firm; Dr. Matthew Hill, [...]

In Jackson, home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 3.8 percent in February 2013 compared to February 2012. On a month-over-month basis, home prices, including distressed sales, decreased by 1.2 percent in February 2013 compared to January 2013. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices increased by 6.2 percent in February 2013 compared to February 2012. On [...]

  With a 20-year-lease offer of $48.5 million on the table, downtown Jackson’s Landmark Center held a clear lead in the competition to become the new headquarters of the Mississippi Department of Revenue. Rivals South Pointe Business Park in Clinton and Diversified Technologies complex in Ridgeland presented offers of $51.4 million and $53.4 million, respectively. [...]

Here’s proof that things can seem horribly bad one week and just peachy the next. On March 18, employees of the Mississippi Department of Revenue endured the ear-splitting sound of a hail onslaught banging on a tin roof and aluminum walls. Seven days later, they heard the wonderful words they’ve awaited for nearly two decades: [...]

A hearing is set for April 3 in St. Louis to finalize the sale of three hotels owned by St. Louis-based Roberts Cos., owners of downtown Jackson’s shuttered Roberts Vista Hotel. The Jackson property, known for several decades as The Walthall, is not among the Roberts hotels to be sold April 3. The 85-year-old East [...]

Aggressive last-minute price cutting did the trick for Clinton’s South Pointe Business Park in the competition to become the new home of the Mississippi Department of Revenue, the state says. The selection came down to price, with representatives of the former WorldCom headquarters presenting a lease offer too attractive to pass up, said Kevin Upchurch, [...]