FEATURE STORY

Well-rounded economy opens world of opportunity

By Greta Sharp
DBJ Contributing Writer

For many people, simply the thought of Tunica conjures up images of brightly-lit casinos and the sounds of slot machines ringing the big payout. But there’s more to Tunica than gaming, and city and county officials are working to share its new image with the region.
Clifton Johnson is the Tunica County Administrator. “From an economic development standpoint, we’re trying to continue to move forward and diversify our economy,” he says, pointing to housing developments in the northern part of the county, a new Waffle House and a probable expansion to the factory outlet mall. “When people from the outside want to move in, they have to build new. Now we have several developments in the northern part of the county. It’s necessary to grow and expand our community.”
Lyn Arnold, president and CEO of the Tunica Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Foundation, regards Tunica’s economic climate as very positive. “We do have some things happening and going on,” she says. “We’re in a real good position right at this moment with a Waffle House getting ready to open. We have a Dollar General ready to be built. Housing is doing very well right now. It’s been a long time goal to get residential development going—and we have four now making good progress. There’s a strong demand for housing and we’re able to have a nice housing mix to meet the demand. We’re seeing interest from retirees, out-of-towners, the second home/vacation market, jobs connected to casinos and others in need of housing.”
According to the chamber’s statistics, Tunica County’s population in 2007 was approximately 10,692. Its growth rate from 2000 is 15.53 percent. The estimated median family income is $38,449 with an estimated per capita income of $19,747.
Tunica County has multiple strengths with which to attract new businesses and residents. “We have a nice family atmosphere,” Johnson says. “We have very low crime. There are very low taxes—some of the lowest in the area. That’s an attraction for people wanting to move in.” Johnson also points to the recreational facilities provided, including the recreational complex that families can belong to for less than $200 a year. For those looking for something for outdoor activities, the Tunica River Park offers exposure to the river and the Delta. Last year, the area’s three golf courses hosted 65,000 rounds of golf.
Strong new infrastructure, available property ready for construction with utilities and communication technology in place and a low tax base are just some of the perks Tunica County offers. It’s also able to offer incentives to companies on an individual basis, access to a large labor force as Tunica is part of the Memphis MSA and good transportation access.
For Webster Franklin, president and CEO of the Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau, the challenge is how to continue the evolution that started 15 years ago with gaming and build that into a well-rounded economy. “The most significant growth to happen in Tunica since the entrance of the gaming industry is the opening of I-69. It opens up a world of opportunity for us,” Franklin says. “The area is seeing the fruits of Tunica County’s investments and hard work, from the outlet mall to Tunica National. The infrastructure has been developed to allow for that growth, to become a community.”
Part of that infrastructure is quick, easy access to Tunica County. “The airport is essential to Tunica’s long-term development,” states Franklin. “Tunica is a tourism destination. It’s not successful unless you’re able to provide good transportation in and out of the destination. With Highway 61 becoming a four-lane road, the opening of I-69 and a location 20 to 30 minutes south of the 1-55/I-40 (connection), we have a good infrastructure for bringing people here, but the airport is critical to Tunica’s long-haul growth even with the large Memphis airport so close by. For the Delta, we need the opportunities that an airport can bring.”
According to Franklin, the first 737 landed at Tunica Airport in November 2005. In 2006, 214 747s landed at the airport. In 2007, more than 480 737-type aircraft arrived at Tunica Airport. This year began with an 85-foot runway expansion, providing additional opportunities and bringing a group of mechanics to the airfield to service the planes. Harrah’s Casino contracted with Allegiant Airlines and now two MD-80s are based at Tunica Field. They fly solely for Harrah’s, however the airline has hired employees to work at the airport servicing the flights.
“Just three or four years ago, no one would have dreamed of this happening,” Franklin says. “Now the dream is regularly scheduled service. We’ve met with a lot of airlines. There’s no commitment yet, but I feel like there will be. There is also a design underway to build a terminal. Tunica is the third busiest airport in Mississippi in terms of passengers—on charter airlines. The next step is scheduled service from certain destinations. That will open up Tunica, the Delta and North Mississippi as a whole.”
The opportunities provided by Tunica County’s gaming industry are ample—bringing in visitors for conventions and meetings. “The casinos are constantly upgrading their properties, spending significant amounts of money year after year to remain fresh, offering the best, most consistent line-up of entertainment in the southeastern United States, as well as providing fine dining and great buffets,” says Franklin.
Aside from the Tunica airport, Arnold points to residential economic development in the area. Tunica County has less than 11,000 residents, but has 16,000 jobs. “We’re pulling from other counties and will continue to do so,” she says, explaining that more residents in Tunica improves the tax base and keeps the money local.
The casinos make up Tunica’s largest employers, followed by the county jobs and the school system. Next is the services sector, which Arnold explained is large as other sectors, but made up mainly of small businesses.
Bill Wright, general manager of the Grand, Horseshoe and Sheraton casinos in Tunica, reports that Harrah’s employs more than 5,000 people at its Tunica casinos. But the local community seems to be the big winner. “In 2007, Harrah’s donated over $1 million in cash and in-kind donations throughout the Mid-South,” Wright says. “We also had a total of 1,103 Harrah’s volunteers give a total of 4,974 man hours to events and causes throughout the Mid-South in 2007.”
That commitment to the community starts with casino employees who make up H.E.R.O.s or Harrah’s Entertainment Reaching Out. The organization hosts monthly bingo games and birthday parties at local nursing homes. This past summer, H.E.R.O.s volunteers raised money to purchase electric fans for needy Tunica seniors. It also partners with the Tunica sheriff’s department, giving away Christmas and Thanksgiving turkeys for the needy, as well as the Annual Holiday Senior Celebration providing lunch, entertainment, gifts and a visit with Santa for area senior citizens. H.E.R.O.s also plays an active role in the Tunica Rivergate Festival and the Delta Day Festival in Tunica, and recently assisted with the Tunic Chamber of Commerce Wellness Day.
One of the biggest hurdles Tunica faces is its perception of itself, says Franklin. “People don’t understand how busy the airport is, even people in Tunica,” he explains. “We have a 2,200-acre site ready to diversify employment from gaming to manufacturing or distribution. The airport is bringing in new jobs. There’s so much more than just the gaming industry, which has brought tremendous opportunities. The challenge is to take advantage as best we can to build a more well-rounded economy as a model for things to come in the Delta and in Mississippi. In 15 years, we’ve taken the poorest county in the poorest place in the United States and created 16,000 new jobs, $3.5 to 4 billion in development, and created a destination which brings in 10 to 12 million visitors a year to this place. It’s had a tremendous economic impact on the Delta and the state.”
Arnold agrees that Tunica’s biggest battle is against the perception that the county is entirely agricultural or gaming. “We have so many other things to offer,” she explains. “We’re an emerging economic area. One of Tunica’s goals is to diversify into manufacturing and distribution. It’s proximity to the Memphis airport, 35 minutes away—all interstate—good infrastructure, good sites for future development. The county has done comprehensive land planning for commercial, residential and industrial areas.”
But that perception isn’t the only issue Tunica struggles with. “Education is an issue for us,” Arnold says. “We need to improve our educational resources. We have ample funds dedicated, but we need to get a better product. That includes the workforce and increasing skills to have a competent workforce for the future.”
Johnson agrees the community’s main challenge is its educational system, both for companies looking at locating in Tunica County and in providing skilled labor. It’s a topic of concern, he says. “Those things are affected by education and once it can be turned around, you can get businesses and grow the population. Tunica County is working with the school system to help improve our situation with education,” Johnson says, predicting that once education is improved “people will see growth in Tunica that no one anticipated.”
Part of overcoming this misperception of Tunica County is actively working toward the future. “The main focus is sustaining industry and diversifying. Tourism is the lifeblood of our economy, but agriculture is still huge,” says Franklin. He wants Tunica County to take advantage of infrastructure improvements with the interstate and the airport, and bring in industry to provide jobs at a higher level, diversifying the economy, increasing the population, and developing a true community where people are living with the 10 to 12 million who come to Tunica to gamble. “We have a lower tax structure and a higher quality of life. It’s a good place to live and work, just close enough to big city amenities of Memphis. The future is very bright,” Franklin says.
Cody Harrell of Dunn & Harrell Development, LLC the developer of Tunica National--A Master Planned Community, and his partner Matthew Dunn chose to build in Tunica for a myriad of reasons. “It’s got a lot going for it, including Tunica County’s gaming market, tax revenue and the good leadership that’s pumping a lot of that back into the community. There’s a higher quality of life for people who choose to live here. It’s an untapped resource and we feel we got in on the bottom floor.” He points to incentives provided by the community such as paving all the roads within the development at no charge. “You don’t see that in a lot of places,” he explains. “Clifton Johnson, Webster Franklin and Lyn Arnold were all easy and good to work with. The leadership is great.”
Harrell explains that a common complaint about the area by new or potential businesses is the lack of employee and executive housing. “Anything that anyone needs, we’ve got,” he says, explaining that Tunica today is building on the success the casinos brought to the community and expanding that into new housing growth.
To draw people to the new housing community, he points to amenities provided by the county such as Tunica National Golf & Tennis, which the residential area surrounds. While the county boasts low property taxes, the town of Tunica has no property taxes. “Up where we are has low taxes—60 percent lower than Desoto County and 70 percent lower than Shelby County, which is who we’re mainly competing with,” says Harrell. “There’s also a lower cost of living.”
The main market is retirees, empty nesters, second home buyers and local employees, from as far away as Colorado, Florida and Illinois, as well as Memphis. “There’s a lower cost of living, and it’s 25 to 30 minutes out of Memphis with interstate access,” Harrell states. “Memphis had been growing east, but people are now looking down here and we’re becoming a suburb of Memphis. You can get a nice, bigger home on a golf course, pay less taxes, get great benefits and get to work faster than going on 240 in Memphis.”
The planned community offers a good housing mix, says Harrell, from Soleil at Tunica National with its condos to Gallery Walk at Tunica National with golf course and lake frontage properties.
Lynn Sturgill is mayor of the town of Tunica. “Tunica is a small, little town,” she says. “We only have around 1,200 people that live here. When the casinos came to the county in 1992, they were out at Moon Landing and people had to go right through town. It was a pretty big boom. We had lots of traffic.” Eventually, the law requiring casinos to be on the water changed and they eventually started building in Robinsonville, Sturgill explains.
Sturgill took office in 1992 as an alderman. The previous mayor, she says, had not requested any of the casino profits received by the county for the town of Tunica. With the help of then-mayor Bobby Williams, the city lobbied the board of supervisors to receive a share like the school system and the sheriff’s department. At that time, the county received three percent of the casino revenues, which Sturgill says worked out to be about $30 million a year. The school system received 12 percent of that three percent share of casino revenues received by the county. The town received three percent, which over the years has grown to 10 percent. “We’re very comfortable with that. It’s around $3 million a year,” she says.
With the additional funds, in 1994 the city started to work on its infrastructure, some of which had not been touched since the 1930s and 1950s, Sturgill says. Improvements included a municipal building, a police and fire station, sidewalks, refurbishing water wells and upkeep to the lagoons, which included adding aerators, all over a period of about 10 years. There were new street signs and new street names and a fresh look to downtown with trees, shrubs and flowers. Strengthening downtown takes creativity. When the post office wanted to move out of downtown onto the highway, city officials rallied to keep it close, even building a new facility. “Anchoring the south end of town is the post office,” says Sturgill.
In 2000, part of the town’s walking park was made into a veterans’ park, which was dedicated by Oliver North. “It was a big thing,” Sturgill says. “All the committee was made up of veterans. We were all really proud when Oliver North pulled back the canopy and he also was floored. He said it was the most beautiful statue he’d ever seen.” After 9/11 a monument was placed in the park. Sturgill says veterans groups regularly visit the park.
To date, the town of Tunica receives approximately $290,000 from the casinos each month, allowing the town to meet its budget, Sturgill says. Less steady is the sales tax revenue. “We can advertise, advertise, advertise, but we can’t make them pull out their wallets and spend money,” says Sturgill. “What’s going to make them spend money? There’s no answer. We are grateful for what we get.”
So grateful in fact, that the town makes a point to give back to less fortunate cities. Tunica provided 600 trees for the city of Bay St. Louis after Hurricane Katrina and offers surplus materials to needier cities at reduced prices. “We try to give back. We don’t do a whole lot of fancy stuff,” Sturgill says. She praised the public works department, the police department and the volunteer fire department, where all the members are board certified. “If it’s good for the town, it’s good for the citizens. You can do anything if you’ve got the right connections and the wherewithal to stick with what you’re doing,” she says. “My job is to do what’s best for the citizens of this town.”
But there is always more to do. “It concerns me to see how we can do more for our citizens,” says Sturgill. “We’re always trying to do more, to make them have a better life.” A large portion of Tunica’s residents are retirees on fixed incomes, she says, so to raise water rates from $3 and $5 to $11 might adversely affect them. By conducting focus groups, she’s able to hear from the community. “We try to do that with everything we do,” she says.
Lynn Ryals is the executive director of the Tunica Main Street Association, which started in 2000. Ryals has served as executive director for the past year, aided by Kate Scott Pennock as the assistant director.
One of Tunica Main Street’s programs is to offer façade grants for downtown businesses. To date, Ryals counted nearly 30 projects where businesses have been awarded money for awnings or to paint the front of their building. Tunica Main Street also provided the playground equipment for the downtown park. It has placed billboards on Highway 61 advertising downtown Tunica, as well as printed brochures for distribution. Main Street representatives meet and greet tour buses and host shopping tournaments. It organizes the Delta Day Festival in the fall and the Wild Game Cookoff in February, bringing some 300 people and live music into downtown. Tunica Main Street recently ended the year long television program “Tunica This Week,” which ran on Saturday mornings on affiliates from Greenville to Memphis.



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