Where are we going to eat?

That question, perhaps the most asked statement among family members in Batesville and Panola County each evening as the dinner hour nears, will soon have more answers than ever locally, according to Panola Partnership Executive Director Joe Azar.

Years of retail recruitment efforts by the Partnership office, with the support of the City of Batesville and Panola County, will culminate with the renewal of business development in the Covenant Crossing area, and at least five more restaurants scattered around what investors hope will be a 32-acre shopping center anchored by big box retailers with familiar brands and logos.

“The developers and my office have agreed that no specific names will be made public until all leases are signed and sealed, but I can say that every one of the retail stores and all the restaurants will be nationally, or at least regionally, known names that the citizens of Batesville and Panola County will be proud to include here,” Azar said.

Similar shopping centers, like the ones in neighboring Oxford and Southaven, shopping choices such as TJ Maxx, Target, Marshall’s, Five Below, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and many others. 

 “Obviously this shopping center won’t have all of those stores you see in other places, but by this time next year that part of Interstate 55 and Highway 6 will look much different, and the stores that are coming will attract shoppers to our town,” Azar said. “They are the same stores that our people are driving to shop and work at now.”

Azar was quick to note that his office will continue to support the businesses and restaurants that are Batesville mainstays and have called Panola home for generations. “We are well aware that this new shopping center was made possible by the great retailers and restaurants we already have. This is not competition, we are just expanding and making more opportunities plus jobs for all our citizens.”

The shopping center is being funded with the passage and approval of of a TIF – an acronym for Tax Increment Financing. In short, investors (Noon Real Estate, LLC in this case) develop shopping centers or business districts and recoup their outlay by having debt retired using a municipality’s portion of the create sales tax, and the city and county’s share of property tax for a set period of time.

Under the terms of this TIF, some $15M (approximately) will go back to the investors before the city begins to benefit from the sales tax produced and the ad valorem taxes. Lowe’s Home Improvement was built using a TIF that was set up for 10 years. Lowe’s was able to generate enough sales to pay back and retire that TIF after just six years, and Azar said he believes the shopping center being planned will also pay off much faster than expected.

Panola Partnership also recommended the city purchase 90 acres behind Lowe’s from Nolan West for roughly $900,000 earlier this year, with an eye toward developing a major sportsplex that will also attract visitors and help keep local hotels and restaurants thriving.

The city raised $450,000 of the purchase price by selling two small lots near Zaxby’s to a developer who is currently building a restaurant and car-service business.

“This is such a win for Batesville and Panola County that it is hard to describe,” Azar said. “We will have at least three hundred jobs created from the shopping center and those incomes alone will increase our sales tax collections at our current retail outlets.” This is what we call growing the right way! It is only possible because our elected leadership are pulling in the same direction and nothing can stop that! That goes for any Mississippi community. We are blessed.