News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Cookeville City Council approved Thursday a one year contract with a retail development consulting firm.
Under the $32,000 contract with Retail Strategies, the firm will conduct a market analysis of Cookeville by studying demographics, psychographics, customer expenditure date, and retail gap analysis.
“We feel like we’ve got some great momentum right now. The shoppes at Eagle point is moving forward and so we have some new opportunities,” Cookeville Economic and Community Development Coordinator Melinda Keifer said. “We’ve had some closures and we want to make sure we backfill those properties effectively. Also, with our new Tennessee Avenue, we feel like we have some commercial and retail opportunities out there.”
Cookeville has worked with retail strategies in this past. This time, Keifer said the firm will be working to update figures from the previous marketing analysis.
“It’s four years old and at the end of the day, used to, you could carry data like that, but things change so fast,” Keifer said. “We’ve had an obvious growth spurt. The census-bureau has named us as one of the top 10 fastest growing micropolitan areas in the country and we feel like it’s time to update that data. We just want to be proactive and take every step we can to get one step closer to get better retail, goods, and services for our citizens.”
The contract will include a web presence and the use of new technology for the study. In addition, Cookeville will also be included in the International Council of Shopping Centers big event, which takes place in Las Vegas in the near future.
“We want to make sure Cookeville is represented right there in Vegas in front of all of those retailers,” Keifer said.
