The Sun Herald held their quarterly business round table yesterday and had local business community movers and shakers share their take on the state of things here in South Mississippi. For those looking for relief from the double whammy of high fuel costs and it’s impacts on pricing at the gas pump and grocery store and the cost of insurance there is no need to read more because you’re still out of luck. Small businesses, especially those in sectors hard hit by bad economic times like restaurants will continue to struggle mightily for some time to come.
However if your time frame is long enough things are considerably brighter as the Sun Herald panel pointed out:
Though the nation’s economy is keeping much of the business world holding its breath, South Mississippi’s economy is in a position to move forward, thanks to stable banks and cooperation among sectors, members of the Sun Herald Business Roundtable said Thursday at their quarterly meeting.
Architect and Airport Authority Commissioner Frank Genzer noted keen interest in an area near Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport.
“There’s a tremendous amount of interest in and around the John Hill Boulevard area,” he said. The road was a dead end, but since easement was acquired for extension, commercial frontage has been added to a route to the new air-cargo facility and the general aviation area of the airport. There have been “tremendous inquiries” from “aviation-related commerce.”
What’s happening with the airport can benefit the state Port of Gulfport, and vice versa, roundtable members said, especially after the Panama Canal opens for bigger ships.
“We need a kick start on the Coast,” said Lenny Sawyer of Sawyer Real Estate, a member of the Port Authority. “We got good news with the LNG (liquefied natural gas terminal project) in Jackson County. And hopefully we’ll have good news with the port with our $570 million addition there. The port is what made Gulfport and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.”
Ray Gonzales, a Realtor with Century 21 Williams and Associates, agreed.
“The whole idea is economics,” he said. “The port, to me, will be the key to the entire development of South Mississippi all the way up to Jackson. And the airport will be the icing on the cake. We can draw in international trade, we can draw in manufacturing like never before – and we will, once the port is deeper. This will have an enormous effect on all of us.”
Meanwhile, banks on the Coast continue to stay above the treacherous waters institutions in other parts of the country are facing, roundtable members said.
Deposits are holding “OK,” said Fred Osing of Wachovia Bank. “I think we’re still seeing a lot of the effect of the Katrina dollars going out,” he said, but the economic base remains strong. Banks are especially competitive now and keeping an eye on shifting of deposits.
Deposits on the Gulf Coast have been artificially inflated since Katrina, but they tend to balance themselves out, said Cheryl Johnson of Regions Bank.
“We have not experienced a significant drop in deposits,” she said. “The banks down here are concerned with integrity and community, and they concentrate on the core fundamentals of banking.”
That conservative approach has helped protect institutions on the Coast from what has happened to banks in other parts of the country, she said.
Credit availability “has not changed. The whole core is acting safely,” she said. “If somebody has a valid business plan… there’s no doormat that’s been pulled in.”
Dave Dennis, a Coast construction executive and former board member of the Federal Reserve, said construction is down, especially private projects.
For the first time since 1992 when gambling arrived on the Coast, more construction work is in the public sector than the private, he said.
“That’s where the money is,” he said.