News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Aldi, Chic-Fil-A, and CVS could be good fits for Livingston based on a retail study shared with the Mayor and Board of Aldermen Monday night.
The city hired a national retail consultant last year to identify areas of sales tax leakage and recruit businesses. After two months of work, Retail Coach Project Director Kyle Cofer said the city has a market of 35,000 people.
“So, that’s the number that we market with retailers and restaurants based on factual data on who is coming here on a regular basis outside of just that community population,” Cofer said. “If we were marketing that, we would be selling yourselves way short.”
Project Director Austin Farmer said the numbers are based off of cell phone data of those traveling through the city. Farmer said the company will now take the market profile to try and recruit businesses.
“We’ve actually started that recruitment process,” Farmer said. “We typically don’t start that recruitment until 120 days into a project, and we are just under that 60 days mark. We were able to really fast track and take advantage of a conference two weeks ago in Las Vegas called the International Council of Shopping Centers. It’s actually the largest real estate conference in the world. We were able to start that recruitment process and meet with a lot of the retailers and restaurants we have identified on behalf of the city.”
Several other companies such as Captain D’s, Zaxby’s and McAlister’s were also on the initial list. Cofer said the businesses shared were solely based on figures shared on respective websites.
“This our target list,” Cofer said. “When we show this, we always want to manage expectations. This is an initial list. This will change multiple times through the next 12 months of recruitment as we hear back positives and negatives.”
Farmer said the study also included a zip code analysis. Farmer said the Cookeville WalMart and the Shoppes at Eagle Pointe were big contributors of sales tax leakage. But at the same time, Farmer said a fair share of Cookeville shoppers also traveled to Livingston.
