Sullivan’s co-owner Tyson Langston told the Dispatch that he and his family closed the deal Friday for the 62,000-square-foot industrial facility with the former Starkville Community Church. The company, which has been in business since 1959, intends to use approximately 10,000 square feet of warehousing and warehousing to expand its office supply business located in downtown Starkville.
“We needed some additional storage space above what we have downtown,” Langston said. “There’s only so much space downtown, and it gets a little more difficult to get trucks (there).”
Langston and former pastor Joseph Horan declined to disclose the purchase price.
SCC has owned the property for nearly 20 years and leased part of it to candle manufacturer CURiO. The church began negotiations in July 2022 to sell the property to developer Mark Castleberry, but the deal fell through in February after CUriO closed its facility and laid off 27 employees.
SCC merged with Calvary Baptist Church in November 2022 to form Bridgeway Church on the former Calvary site on North Jackson Street.
The church initially leased the space to the Langston family in June and began negotiating the sale earlier this month, Horan said.
“They came back and said, ‘We’d really like to buy the building.’ “We think this will work well for our expansion,” Horan said.
“We are excited to move into the future as a church and be able to focus on our core mission and not be landlords. We are also excited that a local business and a local family with deep roots in Starkville have purchased the building.”
In addition to using the space as its own warehouse, the company will also seek to lease the other warehouse space and the former church on the other side, Langston said.
The Langstons will also renovate part of the facility to improve the aesthetics of the property and repair some of the garage doors in the loading bay.
“We would like to find a church to rent half the building because it is already constructed,” he said. “The main point here is that we’re reinvesting in our community, and we’re just going to make improvements to the property. We look forward to serving any tenant we find there.”
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy society. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. Last week, our reporters published 57 articles on cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for just $2.30 a week to help support local journalism and our community.