MDR needs $40 million more for new ABC warehouse project

Grant McLaughlin, Mississippi Clarion Ledger
·2 min read

During a presentation to the Mississippi Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, Mississippi Department of Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham told lawmakers the agency may need an additional $40 million for a new alcohol distribution warehouse.

Graham said while the agency was granted a $55 million appropriation from the Legislature in 2021 to build a new warehouse for the Alcoholic Beverage Control, which would replace the agency's 40-year-old facility, that figure proved too small because of rising building costs over the next few years.

"(We need to replace it) due primarily to the age of the building and the age of the equipment inside it," Graham said.

Mississippi Department of Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham addresses a joint legislative tax study committee at the Capitol in Jackson, in this file photo from 2021.
Mississippi Department of Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham addresses a joint legislative tax study committee at the Capitol in Jackson, in this file photo from 2021.

Now, Graham told lawmakers, he is hoping they will approve an estimated $95 million price tag to fund the project. Though, he also said there is no definitive timeline for the project and a new location for the space has yet to have been chosen.

Those decisions will come once MDR has a chance to consider ABC's needs for the facility while the agency also waits to hear interest from prospective developers.

"Hopefully in the next two months, we'll have our request for proposals out," Graham said. "It'll be responded to by whoever's interested in constructing the warehouse, which would then let us start the process of actually building a warehouse."

He later told the Clarion Ledger the new space is necessary to help keep up with rising demand for alcohol in the state, which the current warehouse cannot always meet.

"When the pandemic came along and people started making money and drinking, our demand outpaced what we're able to do with the current warehouse," Graham said. "The problems we had in the warehouse that were already there for about seven or eight years before, all of a sudden, were exacerbated, and we were in a position where we couldn't meet the demand."

Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MDR needs $95 million to replace alcohol distribution warehouse