STARKVILLE – The board of aldermen on Tuesday approved a special exemption and helped clear the next step in the potential development of a new hotel near Mill Street.

KBR Hotel Partners LLC, a Ridgeland-based company, has proposed building a 102-room Marriott TownePlace Suites on a section of land on the east side of Mill Street. Under the current commercial zoning of the land, the developers would have been required to build a parking lot large enough for 128 cars, or roughly 1.25 parking spots per room.

Brian Nettles, project manager, made the request to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission at its Aug. 13 meeting to reduce that number to 103, citing industry standards for hotels placing parking requirements closer to a one-to-one ratio.

The exemption request received unanimous support from the commission, City Planner Daniel Havelin told the board at Tuesday’s meeting.

“There’s no adverse impact anticipated specifically from the parking reduction (or) availability of public service,” Havelin told the board, which voted to unanimously grant the exception.

The hotel is still in early planning stages, Nettles said, adding he is unsure of a construction timeline for the site.

“I’ll know more about that once we get through the approval process,” Nettles told The Dispatch after the meeting.

Mayor Lynn Spruill said she was excited to hear of the progress being made both on the Marriott hotel and in the nearby Crossroads District. The district is a multi-phase project by the Mississippi State University Foundation announced in August 2025 that includes an array of planned shopping centers, restaurants, faculty housing, a new facility to house the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and the Hotel Madelon.

The Hotel Madelon, an upscale, 122-room hotel that will sit on the south side of University Drive, is part of the project’s first phase and began construction in October 2025. It is expected to be complete by summer 2027.

“It’s about a year past when I would like to have seen them happen, but I am delighted that they are finally becoming a reality,” Spruill told The Dispatch. “… The (Hotel) Madelon, all of those are coming on board probably around the same or within maybe six to 12 months of one another, and I think that will help us dramatically fill the gap that we have that are associated with our athletic weekends, of which I’m hoping we’ll have a lot of successful ones.”

Crossroads District improvements

The board Tuesday approved two memorandums of understanding to receive $2 million allocated to the city during the 2026 Legislative Session through Senate Bill 2189, half of which will fund improvements in the Crossroads District, near Hotel Madelon.

The other half will help with the next phase of wastewater improvements for the city to increase both the system’s overall capacity and peak capacity, Starkville Utilities General Manager Edward Kemp said. The $13 million in wastewater upgrades began about four months ago and are expected to be complete in 2027.

City Engineer Chris Williams said the $1 million funding for Crossroads District improvements will fund potential streetwork on Colonel Muldrow and Lummus avenues, both of which are nearby roadways to the Crossroads District.

The work from the state funding could include moving utilities underground, creating additional on-street parking and addressing street light repairs, Williams said, though plans have yet to be nailed down.

“A million dollars doesn’t get you very far these days,” he told The Dispatch. “So, depending on if we can find some other funds to go with it, or (if) we can figure something out. (It) kind of depends on what the scope of work is on it.”

Williams said he expects fleshed-out plans for those improvements to be finished by the end of the year to determine where the funding will go.

“Our sidewalks aren’t in good shape through there,” Williams said. “… It’s overhead electric, which affects how close you can go to buildings. So it’s looking at trying to fix these up (and) making them better.”

Other business

In other business, the board:

■ approved the $3.6 million grant application for the third phase of the George M. Bryan Airport’s runway and taxi extension;

■ accepted the low bid of $483,000 from JMM Farm and Company for an electrical rehabilitation project on Curry Street; and

■ approved a resolution acknowledging the life and passing of Charles Hampton “Lala” Evans.