Mississippi State, West Point, Maben, Mathiston and Ackerman each have a section below, with ZIP figures from 2023 ZIP Code Business Patterns, and the page starts with leasing retail and office space, the step a shop settles before requesting movable equipment or furnishings; fixed fit-out work is excluded.
Leasing retail and office space, a tenant checklist, and ZIP business counts for five places near Starkville, MS.
How an Oktibbeha County, MS quick-service restaurant leases retail space
A quick-service restaurant leasing retail space in Oktibbeha County, MS needs more from a lease than square footage. The space has to carry a kitchen: an exhaust hood, a grease interceptor, enough electrical service for fryers and coolers, and ideally room for a drive-through lane and parking.
- Ask the city or county planning office whether a restaurant is an allowed use at the address before signing anything.
- Prefer a second-generation space, one that held a kitchen before, if the hood and grease interceptor can be reused.
- Put the supplier-setup and movable-equipment split in the letter of intent: which items the landlord pays for and which the tenant does; fixed building work is excluded.
- Ask for rent abatement during supplier setup, since the kitchen may not sell during that period.
- Match the lease term to the life of the equipment the restaurant will finance.
Food service in the county is a crew business. Only 21.2% of the 151 accommodation and food services establishments with paid employees in Oktibbeha County, MS in 2023 had fewer than five people on staff (CBP, NAICS 72), so a restaurant planning its lease is also planning a payroll. The range and fryer line fit equipment financing; payroll during supplier setup fits working capital; fixed building work is excluded.
A commercial lease checklist for Oktibbeha County, MS clothing shops
A tenant's checklist for a clothing shop lease in Oktibbeha County, MS is largely about cost that sits outside the base rent. Each line below is worth an answer in writing.
- Base rent per square foot, and whether it rises each year by a fixed step or by an index
- Lease type: gross, modified gross or triple net, and which of property tax, building insurance and common-area upkeep land on the shop
- Length of term and any renewal option, with the rent for the renewal years stated up front
- The improvement allowance as a dollar figure, plus the date the landlord releases it
- Use clause wide enough to cover alterations, shoe sales or an online-order counter
- Signage rights on the building front and any pylon sign
- An exclusive-use clause that keeps a second clothing seller out of the same center
- Who repairs the roof, the heating and cooling unit and the storefront glass
Once the answers are in, the shop knows its monthly occupancy cost, which is the figure a funding partner sets against sales when it reviews a request for racks or opening stock.
Leasing commercial office space in Oktibbeha County, MS as a clothing shop
Not every clothing business in Oktibbeha County, MS sells from a storefront. A shop that sells online, or keeps a stockroom and a packing table apart from its sales floor, may lease office or flex space instead, and office leases can be priced on rentable square feet, which include a share of hallways and restrooms.
Illustration only, invented figures: 900 usable square feet with a 12% load factor is billed as 1,008 rentable square feet. At $13.50 per rentable square foot a year, the rent is $13,608 a year, or $1,134.00 a month, which is $121.50 a month more than the same rate charged on usable space alone.
The landlords on the other side of these leases are part of a broad sector: Oktibbeha County, MS had 64 real estate and rental and leasing establishments with paid employees in 2023 (CBP, NAICS 53), a group that also includes equipment rental. Space that costs less each month leaves more room for the stock that sells; an opening order can go to inventory financing.
What landlords around Oktibbeha County, MS require from clothing shops
What landlords around Oktibbeha County, MS can ask a clothing shop for before signing varies by building, so the list below is what a shop can prepare for, not a rule:
- Business bank statements and a year-to-date profit and loss
- The owner’s credit report, pulled by the landlord with permission
- A security deposit, sometimes one or two months of rent
- A personal guarantee from the owner, sometimes limited to the first years of the term
- A certificate of insurance naming the landlord
- Formation papers for the company that will sign the lease
A new shop without a sales history can be asked for a larger deposit or a longer guarantee. A gas station leasing a site meets the same questions, and the landlord can add others about the fuel tanks and who answers for them.
The signed lease then travels with any funding request for the space. A partner can ask for it to see the term and the rent, and a term loan for fixtures fits better when the lease runs at least as long as the payments.
Mississippi State, MS: the community behind ZIP 39762
Mississippi State, MS has no municipal government: the Census Bureau treats it as a census-designated place, an unincorporated community in Oktibbeha County, MS. Its land splits almost evenly between two ZIP codes, 51.7% in ZIP 39759 and 48.3% in ZIP 39762, and the community covers 92.0% of ZIP 39762.
A business with a ZIP 39762 address is part of a small employer base: 26 employer establishments in 2023, with $21.2 million in annual payroll between them (ZIP Code Business Patterns). Half sat in the smallest size class, under five employees. Accommodation and food services was the largest sector there, with 13 establishments; other services had 8.
A cafe or a repair shop at a ZIP 39762 address can call the same line as a Starkville, MS business. The Starkville, MS page has the county figures and the office details.
West Point, MS, a Clay County, MS city, and its ZIP 39773 figures
West Point, MS is an incorporated city in Clay County, MS, so Oktibbeha County figures do not describe it. The city covers 9.5% of the land in ZIP 39773, and the ZIP figures below cover that whole area.
A West Point, MS shop shares its ZIP with a sizable employer base: ZIP Code Business Patterns put 319 employer establishments at a ZIP 39773 address in 2023. Their March payroll was 4,718 employees and $205.9 million for the year; 52.7% of those establishments had fewer than five employees.
Retail trade led the ZIP with 68 establishments, then other services with 45 and accommodation and food services with 37. Health care and social assistance accounted for 24 establishments; construction accounted for 23. In the city itself, the 2020-2024 American Community Survey puts self-employed residents at 6.1% of civilian employed residents age 16 and over, with a margin of error of 2.7 points.
A West Point, MS store restocking for a sales push can look at inventory financing; a contractor buying a skid steer can look at equipment financing.
Maben, MS, a town split between Oktibbeha County, MS and Webster County, MS
Maben, MS is an incorporated town that sits partly in Oktibbeha County, MS and partly in Webster County, MS. Its business figures come by ZIP: the town covers 2.1% of the land in ZIP 39750, so the count describes a much wider rural area.
For ZIP 39750, the 2023 ZIP Code Business Patterns lists 44 employer establishments that paid 340 employees a combined $13.5 million in annual payroll. The smallest size class, under five employees, accounts for 56.8% of those 44. Its sectors include, among others, retail trade with 8 establishments, construction with 7, other services with 7, manufacturing with 5 and accommodation and food services with 3.
A builder or a small plant in that ZIP can look at equipment financing for machines and working capital for a materials order.
Mathiston, MS and Ackerman, MS: Choctaw County, MS towns by ZIP
Ackerman, MS is an incorporated town in Choctaw County, MS. Mathiston, MS, also a town, lies partly in Choctaw County, MS and partly in Webster County, MS. Each has its own ZIP, and each covers only a small share of that ZIP’s land: Mathiston 3.4% of ZIP 39752, Ackerman 1.5% of ZIP 39735.
ZIP 39752 had 36 employer establishments in 2023, with 272 paid employees and an annual payroll of $8.2 million; half had fewer than five employees. Retail trade had 10 establishments, the largest count in the ZIP’s sector table, and health care and social assistance had 5 (ZIP Code Business Patterns).
ZIP 39735 had 84 employer establishments, 1,223 paid employees and an annual payroll of $73.9 million in 2023, and 59.5% of the establishments had fewer than five employees. Its sectors include, among others, retail trade with 17, other services with 12, finance and insurance with 8, health care and social assistance with 8 and construction with 6.
A store in either ZIP that runs its sales through a card terminal can compare a card-sales advance with working capital before choosing.
By Jadeglen Loans · Updated
