West Point is going through a growth spurt

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI)- If you take a drive down Highway 45 Alternate in West Point, you might notice some new businesses setting up shop.

The city of West Point is going through a growth spurt.

From commercial business, to mom and pop shops, all types of businesses are taking advantage of the traffic on Highway 45 Alternate.

The increase in commerce is helping to reshape the city’s economy.

Mayor Robbie Robinson says that more businesses mean an increase in the city tax base which is good for everyone.

“We’ve had significant positive commercial development on Highway 45 South and West Point is the magnet. There’s so much activity down there. It’s attracted a lot of growth.In fact, our growth here in the city has been about 5% for tax base and we are very grateful for it,” said Mayor Robinson.

New fast food restaurants and retail have popped up, but local business owners say that Yokohama has made the biggest impact.

“Since Yokohama came here we have begin to see the incline of businesses and people just had an upbeat, you know, they felt better about being here. Since Bryan left, you know, it’s like a death tone everybody was just down and out about businesses leaving. Yokohama came and then we have a couple of more companies come,” said Dorothy Floyd.

Floyd is a restaurant owner in West Point. She says she made the move to Highway 45 Alternate after seeing other businesses begin to flourish.

“We began to see the business getting a little bit slow, and we realized how many other restaurants were moving to the highway and me and my husband, we sat down we had a long conversation about it. We said let’s give it a try and move to the highway, and it has been wonderful,” said Floyd.