Sunday, October 09, 2005

Southern Town with Charm

Cleveland, MS (population 13,841) is a delta town that developed as a cotton town. There is still a lot of cotton raised in the region but Cleveland has developed into a regional educational, manufacturing and retailing center. Delta State University with 4,000 students is located in the town and Baxter makes intravenous solutions with 800 employees there.

Raymond Huerta grew up in Cleveland but moved to Dallas for 10 years. He told me, “I saw what happened in downtown Dallas with redevelopments and when I moved back here.” He redid an old grocery warehouse and has plans to redo an old downtown hotel into a condo/hotel/conference center.

Downtown Cleveland is a vibrant place with many unique stores filling it. I saw few vacancies in my tour.

Cleveland is another rural town that has turned a spec building into a major employer. Faurecia (pronounced For See a) moved into it and has grown to over 500 employees in making auto seats there.

Cleveland showed their giving side, hosting 1,800 Katrina evacuees recently. I was impressed with the town and the people that I met in my visit there last week.

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