News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Consulting firm Retail Strategies is assisting the City of Cookeville in filling retail vacancies.
City Economic Development Coordinator Melinda Keifer said the company is currently helping find buyers for two retail sites.
“We’ve been notified there is a buyer supposedly for the Kmart shopping center area, we don’t know anything about it. Also, that there is a letter of intent possibly for Ruby Tuesday,” Keifer said. “They’re really out in the places that we just don’t have the budgets to go to market Cookeville, and I just think they’ve done a phenomenal job.”
Keifer presented Cookeville City Council with a one-year contract extension with Retail Strategies during Monday’s work session.
Keifer said Retail Strategies has played a major role in finding new retailers and filling vacancies across the city.
“The amount of data that they pull for us and that we’re able to send on to retailers is so extensive,” Keifer said. ” I don’t always send those out to everybody in the council, but they have been absolutely a true help…. helping fill specifically fill places like the Hobby Lobby [and] Kmart.”
The $25,000 extension will require the city to pay $12,500 during the first half of the fiscal year. The remaining balance will be paid by the end of the existing.
