Business Blog

Mississippi will be nearing the end of this decade before job numbers in manufacturing, leisure & hospitality and several other sectors returns to the pre-recession levels of 2007, state economists say in a new report. The news is not entirely bad, however. The November issue of the Mississippi Economic Outlook reports that the leading indicators [...]

In a clear sign that state leaders have decided against further delays in getting the Mississippi Department of Revenue out of its metal warehouse headquarters in Raymond, the state has issued a request for proposals to building owners interested in leasing to the department. The move represents a change of heart by state leaders who [...]

A court-appointed receiver is in talks with several prospective buyers of downtown Jackson’s Roberts Vista Hotel, currently shuttered and awaiting repairs from water damage. The hotel is known more commonly in Jackson as The Walthall, for Civil War figure Edward Cary Walthall, whose name it bore upon opening 85 years ago. As it has several [...]

August Group Ventures has received a $16 million loan to complete its acquisition of Jackson’s Hilton Hotel at 1001 County Line Road. August Ventures is taking over the 276-room hotel as part of its April acquisition of the hotel’s previous owners, Lane Hotels. The hotel will remain a Hilton, according to Adam Robinson, loan officer [...]

  Hibbett Sporting Goods Store has signed a lease for 5,000 square feet at Westland Plaza in West Jackson and plans to open before Thanksgiving. Stirling Properties brokered the lease and says buildout is under way on the new store. Hibbett Sports joins Foot Locker which opened in January as the two newest tenants at [...]

  Shopping centers around the country saw an up-tick in revenue in the second quarter but not enough to offset higher expenses, the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) says in reporting on a new survey. The survey of investment managers for approximately 1,000 shopping-center [...]

  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won’t be taking part in the Obama administration’s home mortgage principal reduction program. That’s bad news for underwater homeowners but cause for rounds of high-fives among executives in the nation’s financial sector. The setback for homeowners came Tuesday when Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco bowed to [...]

Mississippi ended May with a 0.03 percent increase in home foreclosure inventory compared to the same period a year ago, California real estate research and inform CoreLogic reports. Mississippi’s increase comes as foreclosure inventories in most states are showing declining percentages, CoreLogic said. Mississippi’s residential foreclosure inventory represented 2.7 percent of all homes on the [...]

Jackson’s Watkins Development has reached a deal with the City of Meridian to transform a vacated Cowboy Maloney store into an $8.2 million police station. The City is to put $2.1 million into the project and rent the building from Watkins for 20 years at an annual cost of $305,000, adjustable for inflation every five [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday completed a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill that cuts farm subsidies and land conservation spending by about $2 billion a year but largely protects sugar growers and some 46 million food stamp beneficiaries. The 64-35 vote for passage defied political odds. Many inside and outside of Congress had predicted [...]