By LISA MONTI NASA is looking for a private sector partner to develop and operate a technology park on 1,100 federally owned acres in the northern portion of Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis. Don  Beckmeyer, NASA’s manager of strategic business development at Stennis, said the technology corridor named Enterprise Park will support future activities of commercial space transportation ...

By BECKY GILLETTE When the Madison County Economic Development Authority (MCEDA) wanted to do a nationwide search for a new executive director, it selected the firm VisionFirst Advisors based in Tallahassee, Fla., headed by a name very familiar and respected in Mississippi economic development circles, Gray Swoope. Swoope, who was executive director of MDA from 2007 to 2011 before taking ...

By JULIA MILLER Sitting right across the border from Memphis, DeSoto County Tourism is hoping to capitalize on its growth with a new marketing campaign: “South of the Ordinary.” “We have the extraordinary things to offer,” Executive Director Kim Terrell said, “We have that small town feel.” DeSoto’s tourism office created a countywide strategic plan in 2016, and at the ...

  Mayors of just about all small towns are part-time individuals interested and willing to serve their communities. They do not get paid very much and most are not holders of college degrees in economic or community development. They learn quickly that there is a lot to learn about being the CEO of a small town. One of the many ...

By LISA MONTI Inside of a plain metal building on the edge of the Kiln community, Matt Crittenden is making whiskey and a little Hancock County history. The al-most completed Crittenden Distillery’s high-end bourbon and rye will have the distinction of being the first whiskey to be legally produced in the county, which many a moonshiner has called home. Crittenden ...

  By LISA MONTI Biloxi Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich is putting together a partnership to help plan the transformation of vacant green space adjacent to the Point Cadet Marina into a collection of new tourist-friendly marine-related attractions. Among the improvements Gilich envisions is expanding the Gulf Coast Research Lab’s pier, where research vessels dock, to allow oystermen to offload their ...

  BLUE SPRINGS — Toyota Motor Corp. says its Mississippi plant has assembled its millionth Corolla sedan. The company made the announcement Tuesday, a little more than six years after it started assembling cars at the $800 million Blue Springs plant. The Japanese company marked the 10th anniversary of its groundbreaking earlier this year with a series of celebrations. Incoming ...

By JACK WEATHERLY Milwaukee Tool is expanding operations at its three Mississippi locations, investing $33.4 million and creating 660 jobs over the next four years. The Mississippi Development Authority is providing $15.35 million in grants. The expansions are planned for the company’s plants in Jackson and Greenwood and its distribution center in Olive Branch. Milwaukee Tool Group President Steve Richman ...

Mississippi State’s Carl Small Town Center is receiving two statewide awards for its “Marking the Mule” project focused on advancing citizen engagement in the Marks community. CSTC Director Leah F. Kemp recently accepted a 2017 Public Outreach Award from the Mississippi Chapter of the American Planning Association. The award recognizes an individual or program that uses information and education to ...