“The 17,000 students have very little money to spend”?

Really? Without those 17,000 students, Starkville would be Eupora or Mathiston… Each of those 17,000 students spends thousands of dollars a semester in Starkville. As a former service industry worker, I can tell you that some of those students with “very little money to spend” somehow manage to pay $50+ bar tabs four nights per week and buy plenty of toys… If you don’t believe me, spend an hour or two in Walmart to see the kind of stuff these kids are buying…

And that doesn’t count the 6 or 7 home football games, 15 or so home basketball games and 30+ home football games, which are all big economic impacts because of the tourist dollars they bring in, and will get even bigger with this development…

Columbus has never and probably will never see anything like the Cotton Mills project.

I am not sure that your statement “The 17,000 students have very little money to spend” is accurate. Don’t underestimate the power of 17,000 students, particularly when you consider that 90%+ spend every penny they make + every penny they get from their family. This is in addition to the credit they receive from credit card companies. The average college student graduates with over $800 in credit card debt, and 25% of students have over $3,500 of credit card debt upon graduation. If you build it, they will spend it…….

To be accurate according to the Cotton Mill website, this project has 950,000 sq. feet of MIXED Retail space available. The vast majority of the 950,000 sq. feet available will be used for the residential area, hotel, restaurants, conference center and the movie theater. From the website, I am under the impression the only retail that will be located in the Cotton Mills besides the 50,000 sq. feet specifically for retail will be the two other big box stores.