Things To Consider When Negotiating a Fair Deal Structure in Public-Private Partnerships

Posted by Retail Attractions Blog on July 30, 2018 in Blog | No Comments

Whenever you’re negotiating a contract, you want to get a fair deal. And so does the group you’re negotiating with. “Fairness” is a subjective term, though. It’s going to mean something different to different people. If you want to negotiate a fair deal structure for a public/private retail development partnership, it’s going to take some extra effort.

So how do you go about making sure that all parties are reasonably satisfied? Keep reading to find out.

A Fair Deal

Each party in a public/private partnership is invested in the outcome of the deal and has a stake in upholding the transaction documents. In a fair deal, they’ll be reasonably certain of achieving the outcomes both agreed on. Both sides accept the risks as well as the rewards and acknowledge there’s a fair balance between the two.

The public and private side each contribute to making sure the deal stays fair. The private side takes financial risks expecting to reap significant rewards on that investment. The public side balances that investment by providing infrastructure, incentives, and other resources. And they’re expecting to receive a return on the investment as well in the form of employment opportunities, an improved sales tax base, available services, and other public benefits.

A Foundation For Fairness

It’s pretty much inevitable that a public/private partnership will hit a few rough patches during the course of your retail development deal. You can make things easier down the road by laying a foundation early-on that supports your goal of maintaining a fair deal structure. Both parties need to do their homework and evaluate the risks and returns offered on both sides.

Don’t just leave negotiations up to the lawyers. The more involved each side is during the negotiation, the better you’ll be able to ensure you’re creating a fair deal. Open communication and shared information go a long way toward cultivating the mutual trust needed to maintain a fair partnership.

A Need For Counsel

While it’s vital that both parties stay involved when negotiating the deal, they can also benefit from an outside perspective. Public/private partnerships involve a wide variety of technical and legal details. So you’ll want to hire someone with the expertise to make sure everything goes smoothly. It’s better to take a little extra time and bring in an expert than to rush into a deal only to find out later that it wasn’t as fair as you both thought.

Retail Attractions provides a much-needed perspective on partnership negotiation. We have extensive experience with retail development details. We’ll help you make sure the deal you work-out benefits both parties. With our knowledge of the retail development process, we can advise both public and private parties as they negotiate and compromise to develop the best possible contract. To learn more, contact us and check out the book City On A Hill.

Here’s Why You Should Work On Your Municipal Infrastructure Before Starting Retail Development

Posted by Retail Attractions Blog on July 9, 2018 in Blog | No Comments

Retailers do extensive research and analysis to make sure they’ve found a good location before deciding to build in a town or city. You can help your community stand-out in these searches by meeting their requirements for retail development sites. One of the best ways to do this is by focusing on developing your municipal infrastructure.

Having the right municipal infrastructure in place is a huge advantage when marketing your community. Retailers will be much more eager to work with a community that’s proactive. If they see you have an actionable plan to upgrade infrastructure and handle the increased demands of retail development, they’ll see you’re serious about working with them.

Plan Your City Systems

If you’re ready with plans for improved traffic flow and public transportation, that might just be the thing that catches a retail developer’s eye. Retailers want to see that your city is prepared to make new retail developments easily accessible. They’ll also be looking at available properties to make sure they’re the right size and in a good location to attract traffic from local and out-of-town customers.

Retailers also want to know that the city infrastructure can handle an increased demand on water, sewage, electrical, communication, and other systems. They won’t want to deal with construction delays or other problems that might come up if your city isn’t ready to expand.

Reexamine City Ordinances

It’s also a good idea to take a look at city ordinances and zoning that will affect retailers. These include rules governing parking, landscaping, signage, and lighting. Making things easy for incoming retailers can go a long way toward convincing them to build in your town.

Another thing to reexamine is your review and approval process. Retailers are not going to want to mess with a lengthy approvals process for permits. The more simple and easy to understand your approval process is, the more attractive working with your community will be.

Get Some Help

Retail Attractions provides general municipal consulting services to growing communities. We offer services that will help you develop:

• Local or regional comprehensive plans
• Water, stormwater and sewer master plans
• Transportation/traffic flow master plans
• Technology master plans
• Zoning master plans
• Parking, lighting, sign, and landscaping ordinances

Once your community has a plan for developing a healthy infrastructure, Retail Attractions can help you come up with a plan that will entice retail development to your community. If you want to learn more, just get in touch with us through this link.

If you found this article useful, then you’ll probably also like my book City on a Hill. It gives a no-nonsense take on economic development that’s really helpful for cities just getting started with their retail development plans.