Is your city different from mine? How to create a vision.

Posted by Rickey Hayes on July 5, 2011 in Blog | No Comments

Written by
Rickey Hayes
Retail Attractions, LLC

(continuation from previous post)

Cities need to face reality. Every community has retail potential. If somebody living in your community travels out of your community to purchase goods or services, you are losing revenue. That is reality. Every community needs to know the reality of it’s retail potential, whether it’s bright or depressing, and then do everything they can to maximize their potential. Cities need to look for and face reality about the overall appearance of the community to outsiders and citizens alike. Communities need to face reality about their fiscal health and opportunities for growth.

At a minimum every community needs to:

• Improve their overall cosmetic appearance and put on their best face
• Look at what technology is available and implement what is affordable to stay up with the times
• Collect and provide current and relevant data on development related topics: sales tax growth, building permits, traffic counts, etc.
• Know their city limit population and their trade area population. Cities need to understand who lives there and who shops there. They need to know their income levels, education levels, age distribution, ethnic backgrounds, housing profile (basic data on what the residential development in the city looks like) and occupation classification for the local workforce.
• Understand basic real estate principles, land values and be sensitive to confidentiality issues and development criteria
• Have an understanding of how to partner with a retailer or a developer to create a good environment for investment
• Examine their development process to ensure it is as seamless and efficient as possible. I have encouraged each community I have worked with to take an unbiased look at their development process and have not seen one where some changes didn’t need to be made.

As overwhelming as this list seems, it is all necessary to make your community the most attractive destination possible to retailers looking to expand. Competition is fierce, and there are communities across the country getting their ducks in a row. If you don’t want to be left out, you need to do the same. Retail Attractions can help you put your best foot forward. We provide a wide range of services to help you turn your vision into your reality.

Contact us today to make a seemingly overwhelming task more manageable.