The Landers Center hotel in Southaven, an Embassy Suites meant to anchor the county’s convention center expansion, has fallen well behind the rest of the project. The DeSoto County Convention and Visitors Bureau board is now publicly pressing for action, according to a report from The Daily Memphian.
The Daily Memphian’s Oct. 15 story, headlined “‘Hollow promises’: DeSoto board demands action on stalled Landers hotel,” reports that work on the convention center side of the project is entering its final quarter. Hotel construction, by contrast, is only in its first half, and “barely so,” according to the report.
Where the Landers Center hotel project stands
The project pairs an $85 million expansion of the county-owned Landers Center with a new Embassy Suites by Hilton hotel designed to connect directly to the expanded venue. The Daily Memphian describes the hotel as a 240-room property. Officials broke ground on the expansion and the attached hotel on Aug. 28, 2025.
Key points from the reporting:
Convention center: Construction is entering its fourth quarter, putting it close to completion.
Hotel: Work is reported to be only in its first half, leaving a wide gap between the two pieces of the project.
Developers: At the 2025 groundbreaking, the hotel was presented as a partnership between WOW Resorts and Onyx Hospitality.
Board response: The tourism board, which promotes DeSoto County as a destination, is calling for the hotel side to move forward.
Southaven mayor says hotelier gave assurances
Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite told The Daily Memphian the project has been a “Super Bowl” of challenges and negotiations. He said hotelier Bruce Patel has assured him the hotel will be completed.
The full details of the board’s demands are behind The Daily Memphian’s subscriber paywall. DeSoto County News will update this story as more information becomes available from the county, the city, or the developers.
Why the Landers Center hotel matters to DeSoto County
When ground was broken in August 2025, local leaders described the project in sweeping terms. Musselwhite called it the most significant economic development project in the county’s history. Board of Supervisors President Mark Gardner said it would create several hundred new jobs and deliver a strong return for taxpayers. Supervisor Lee Caldwell said a convention center and hotel at the site fulfilled a vision first conceived about 25 years earlier.
The hotel was billed as DeSoto County’s first four-star hotel. A full-service hotel attached to the arena and convention space is meant to let Southaven compete for conventions, trade shows, and multi-day events that need on-site lodging. Without it, the convention center could open with no connected place for out-of-town visitors to stay.
The Landers Center is already busy this fall. It hosted the Mid-South Fair earlier this month, and the new Mid-South Monarchs hockey team plays its first home games there on Oct. 23 and 24 against the Baton Rouge Kingfish.
What comes next
The questions now are whether the hotel developers will speed up construction and how the county and city will respond if the delays continue. The convention center is moving toward completion, so the timeline for the hotel will decide when the full project can deliver the economic impact leaders promised.
