Tupelo officials reject Gravlee Lumber Development proposal
Dec. 22—TUPELO — Tupelo officials are back to the drawing board with the historic Gravlee Lumber building after a request for proposals period yielded no suitable candidates.
The Tupelo City Council voted unanimously among present members to reject the sole RFP submitted because the project applicant failed to meet several of the needed criteria for review, Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Neal McCoy said. Ward 3 Councilman Travis Beard was absent.
"We'd like to go back to square one, have some conversations with developers and come back with a plan to present to the council a path forward," McCoy said.
The city purchased the building along with the now-demolished Garner-Watson Ice Plant for $410,000 in August 2020. The city began its RFP period on Oct. 5 and closed on Nov. 28. The city hoped to spark interest in developing more entertainment, retail and restaurant opportunities that stay open after 5 p.m. to downtown using the building.
When asked what he thought caused the low participation in the requests for proposals, McCoy said he believed a litany of issues contributed to it, from high interest rates and material costs to bad timing.
"A lot of this has to do with interest rates and construction costs. Those two things combined scared people off," he said, noting one developer had shown interest in the building but, because of timing issues, could not complete a proposal in time.
McCoy said the sole applicant, a group of local developers, proposed a "food hall concept," but the submission was incomplete. The rejection letter presented to the council states the missing requirements included a project timeline, preliminary engineering, a statement of financial capacity, a list of previous projects of similar size and scope, and a letter of interest with a purchase offer.
"With these items missing and the lack of attendance at the pre-submittal conference, we do not feel that we could enter into negotiations with this group with confidence that we would get a project that would meet the city's expectations," city officials wrote in its rejection request. "We recommend meeting with this group and explaining what was missing from their proposal and declining their proposal."
Tommy Morgan Real Estate Agent Meredith Martin, who is connected to the proposed project, declined to comment, citing her confidentiality clause.
McCoy said city officials planned to get back to work on the development project in January.
