Photo: A rendering of the proposed Embassy Suites Hotel at the Landers Center/Convention Center site. (Courtesy photo)
Southaven aldermen Tuesday night approved another step in the process of constructing a five-star hotel and convention center at the site of Landers Center.
A design review approval vote was made for a seven-story Embassy Suites Hotel on a lot of the DeSoto Convention Center subdivision.
City Planning Director Whitney Choat-Cook said the hotel will have 240 rooms and an attached high-end restaurant, the type of which she said will be determined during construction.
The planned convention center as part of the Landers Center improvements will not have a physical connection to the hotel but the shared parking area and walk paths will make it accessible to each other.
“It will become the first convention center in the state of Mississippi with a hotel on site, it will be huge for a tourism draw here,” said Mayor Darren Musselwhite. “The convention center expansion will be north of the existing Landers Center and the hotel will be north of the Convention Center at the area of Pepperchase and Venture. The hotel will also have a resort-style swimming pool with a lazy river, which has never been in DeSoto County before.”
During the Mayor’s Report, Musselwhite said about $1.3 million has become available and he asked and got board approval for that funding to cover additional street resurfacing projects for the summer. The two big ones he wants resurfaced are Swinnea Road between Rasco Road and Worthington Estates, and Southcrest Parkway by Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto. There are others that will be addressed that Musselwhite said were in “lost” condition.
The money became available when the federal government approved a 50 percent match on some utility projects the city had applied for funding with ARPA funds.
Musselwhite also said the city will make Tulane Road north of Stateline Road a “No Trucks Allowed” route and trucks who use the road face a $1,000 fine, if they are found there.
It is meant to get the attention of two industrial developments along the state line in Memphis that have come up, expect to use Stateline as a connection, but refused to talk with the city ahead of the development.
“It’s time to get their attention,”Musselwhite said. “Maybe they will now want to talk to us and try to find a solution. We’re not against trying to find a solution, but they want to come to us and talk.”
