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By PAUL SIMS
Starkville Daily News
At least one business owner along Highway 182 — an area of Starkville perceived as on the decline — says the region is ripe with opportunity and gradually rejuvenating.
“Slowly but surely, you’re seeing some of these buildings and things revitalized,” said Kevin Casteel, owner of Lifestyles Beauty Supply, one of several businesses to open up along the corridor in recent months. The highway and its surroundings are seen by some in the community as past prime and facing challenges, but Casteel thinks the area’s time will come.
“It’s going to take some time but sooner or later this side of town is going to get its due. It’s just got to be a change in the mindset,” Casteel said.
Business operators in the area are interconnecting, passing along ideas and even customers, Casteel said.
Casteel asks prospective business owners to see the area for themselves.
“Just come down and take a look at what businesses might be needed and opportunity available to you,” Casteel said.
“I think people don’t think of this side of town in terms of location. This side of town can support and sustain businesses that are visionary enough to take advantage of the opportunities,” he said.
Businesses along Highway 182 can draw traffic from such areas as Houston, Pheba, West Point, Eupora and Mathiston, Casteel said.
“I’m finding out that people would love to stay close to home and not cross over to the other side of town and support the businesses wholeheartedly,” he said.
The 182 corridor and surrounding area need more restaurants and at least one full-line grocery store, he said.
Lifestyles has been open about six months and focuses on beauty supplies, hair and hair care products, art work and fashion jewelry.
Stylists and students receive a 10 percent discount and Casteel offers a frequent shopper program.
Willie Rhine and Starkville firefighter Tony Clayborn operate Wholesale Auto Center next to Casteel’s business. Wholesale sells new and used tires and custom wheels and provides such services as oil changes and brake work. It also offers home, auto, life, health, mobile home and business insurance coverage.
They’ve been in business since March.
“I just enjoy dealing with customers. We thrive on customer service,” Clayborn, who manages the tire end of the business, said.
Rhine runs the insurance side.
“Basically we saw a good opportunity to put both together,” he said.
He provided his thoughts on Highway 182 and its activity.
”It’s growing in (the) sense a lot of people don’t want to deal with Highway 12 traffic,” Rhine said.
The addition of other businesses would improve the Highway 182 environment and “they would be productive,” he said.
Mary A. Taylor recently relocated her shop, Taylor Made Salon, to its Highway 182 location from Lafayette Street.
She is located next to Boardtown Insurance, where Sule Alli is the owner.
The former garage bay in which she now operates her styling shop with four employees underwent major renovation, she said.
“We gutted the place,” Taylor said. New flooring, lighting, paint and an upstairs office and a stairway were added. She says additional improvements planned, including sectioning off the parking lot for parking, painting the exterior and landscaping the back of the building.
As for her business, she said: “We pride ourselves in customer service. We think that people are important. At Taylor Made, we think everybody is somebody.
“Not only do we like to make them look beautiful, but we also maintain the atmosphere of making them feel beautiful,” she said.
Her four employees are Shunda DeLoach, Carolyn Hairston, Rena Dean and Marcus McDowell.
Dean and Taylor specialize in hair of all cultures.
The staff also works after hours, Taylor said. “We cater to the needs of our clients and try to fit their schedules,” she said.
Taylor, who has found that her business has “excelled” since her relocation, says one of the reasons she decided to move to Highway 182 is that the community is losing the quality of what the highway represents for Starkville.
“While I understand it used to be one of the main attractions for grocery stores, retail shops, etc., I feel like Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is an exciting street and we should focus on putting more businesses on this side of town,” Taylor said.
“I think we should preserve the quantity and quality of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.”
Taylor says her business is one that has “made a vow to put forth the effort to do my very best in helping put Martin Luther King Jr. Drive back on the map. I challenge other businesses to do the same,” she said.
She says it’s important because the area is historic as a business section.
“It would be a shame to see something that’s a landmark of Starkville fade away,” Taylor said. |
