City Redevelopment Looking At Possible Retail Study
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
A study may be able to tell city officials where there’s gaps in Warsaw’s retail market.
Community Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner told the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission on Monday, “I know some of you have been before me talking about marketing tools for retail. So I did discuss an option for us with this consulting company - Retail Strategies.”
He told them he didn’t need the commission to approve anything Monday, but just to review the information he provided to them about Retail Strategies.
“The intent of this is kind of a combination of a citywide retail market study, but we certainly can have them focus on some areas and maybe some interests as well. But, the intent was that they would complete the retail market study portion ... at the end of that, they would identify a list of retail establishments to go after, and we would get to say yea or nay to that list that they present to us. And then they would actively go out and seek those businesses to look at locations in Warsaw,” Skinner explained.
The contract would be for three years, but it’s set up so the city could stop it after the first or second year. The price may be negotiable with them, but there are two different cost amounts offered. “The point being, I think there is some room to negotiate, but it is going to be an investment on our part to do this,” Skinner said.
However, he said he’s been approached by Common Council members and others to take a more proactive approach to marketing, so Retail Strategies offers an opportunity to do that. The contract would be paid out of the Redevelopment Commission, to be figured out later.
The reason for the three-year contract, Skinner said, is because time is needed to do the market study, contact the businesses, find a site and develop it. That all takes more than one year. He said the city should be able to see results after three years. If it’s successful and if the city likes the results, the contract can be extended.
“Given what I’ve seen from them, I think two things are going to happen,” Skinner said. “One, you’re going to get the statistics that really tell you what our retail market is, regardless of whether or not anything else happens. Two, you’re going to get a list of retail establishments to potentially market to that are being underrepresented within Warsaw.”
Councilman and Commission member Mike Klondaris said, “Jeremy, I am thrilled. You and I have talked about this for years over many lunches about this. This is great. This is really great.”
Skinner said he thinks it’s a great opportunity but wanted the commission to “sink their teeth” into it and they could discuss it further at their 4 p.m. April 10 meeting.
“It’s not a small investment. It’s a big investment,” Skinner said. He said he liked the way Retail Strategies laid it out and went about their process.
Klondaris suggested, before any contracts were signed, to have a meeting or virtual meeting with Retail Strategies. Skinner said he definitely thought it would be worth having conversations with them.
Skinner said the city has done studies in the past, though none he’s commissioned. “It’s easy to do market studies. The hard part is after the market study. It’s real easy to pay someone $60,000-$70,000 to do a market study. That market study is just numbers on a piece of paper. If you don’t do anything with it, then you’ve just wasted $70,000. I don’t want to waste $70,000. At the end of the day, you better have a target, you better know what we’re trying to accomplish, and we’re contracting with them to go out and accomplish on our behalf.”
Mayor Joe Thallemer told the commission, “Jeremy presented this to me and I had a chance to look at it. It was a little sticker shock for me, but as I dug into the details, obviously, as Jeremy mentioned, they can accomplish what you all want accomplished. I think it makes sense. I would certainly feel much better having a meeting with these folks and hearing a little bit about their methods and their successes. I think that would be good. I think some type of presentation is very appropriate.”
After further discussion by Skinner and the commission, it was decided Skinner would contact Retail Strategies and set up some type of meeting with the commission to learn more.
Learn more about Retail Strategies on their website at https://www.retailstrategies.com/.
