On April 11th the Jacksonville City Council called a special work session to get an update on the status of the retail strategies development. The city entered into a one year contract with retail strategies that expires in May. The meeting was attended by all the city council members. Speaking from Retail Strategies was Jeff Sommer, Portfolio Director, and Drew Kaufman, Retail Development Coordinator. They stated they have been “recruiting for Jacksonville since about August.” They stated with a discovery phase, which is really understanding the market, they met with a team, and their main points of contact have been “Mark and Burt” who they said they appreciate and that “they’ve done a great job communicating with us.” They described their job as to come to Jacksonville and do the best they can to recruit retail and restaurants. They want to grow the pie for the city. To accomplish this they analyzed the market to determine what sites are “low hanging fruit for retail recruitment.” They also looked at the demographics. They stated an understanding with what brands are growing nationally and also in the region then they took that information to set off recruiting for Jacksonville. They also stated that they were pleased with the work that’s been done last year.
They also noted that they had to funnel information through a couple of people to keep it confidential. They tried to explain that they wish they could spread the word on all their efforts all the time and talk about the brands their speaking with, but a lot of times if a retailer finds out “they go silent and a deal can die. So it’s very sensitive. Sometimes there’s NDA signed as far as the conversations go.” They described themselves as “Professional pesters. Our job is to call that real estate director that’s based in Nashville or Charlotte and say, Hey, I’ve got a site for you in Jacksonville, Alabama. Let me tell you about it. It’s a growing market as a thriving community. Here’s the price. And then we basically play matchmaker and Jacksonville is on the map, we try to put you at the top of the map put you at the top of the email inbox of that real estate director. And it’s a daily process.” They also addressed the university being a big part of the community. “We want to keep students here on the weekends, a lot of times that means entertainment or food. So we have to kind of marry what your desire is with what is happening and the retail trends. We know we have fast food. That’s a hot topic right now that those brands survived through COVID because they have the delivery. We do have some national brands that we are speaking with that are very serious about Jacksonville. One is a quick service, it’s not hamburger, but it’s related to that fast food category that they’ve honed in on a couple of sites. We also have a general merchandise user that is focused on families, they have electronics, they have beauty, they have items from the garden. And they would be something that your teenagers would love to go there and buy things.” They also warned to try to alleviate concerns the council may have as far as impacting local business. Overall what they want to do is raise the game for everybody.
Another area addressed was hospitality. They said they think it makes sense to have more hotel in the area. They stated that there are multiple brands are interested in Jacksonville.They stated they have done a lot of groundwork and they feel comfortable in this market. They did stress that most deals take between 18 and 36 months which is why they always ask for more time because it’s a process. They did state they understand the investment the city is making, but it is to keep Jacksonville at the top of the list and keep your name on peoples mind.
Councilman Andy Green stated that he knows anybody who’s ever been involved in any deal understands that specifically when you’re talking about business, it does not happen overnight. He also mentioned the ripple effect of brands and that’s something that he thinks Jacksonville has benefited from greatly. He stated “as soon as you get, you know, one anchor, if you will, then you get another brand and then you get another and then you get another and so it’s success builds on exact and it’s credit to the years ago when when the city was able to get certain things in place. So that that could happen for the future.” He also asked “What are the limits that you can share limitations or issues that we might be able to help with? From our standpoint, if there are roadblocks or hurdles or things that you all are coming up against? Is there something that we can offer?”
Retail Strategies acknowledged
“that property owners in town are seeing some of the brands come in, so their price may be a bit a bit less a year or two ago now, it’s kind of gone up a little bit. So that does make it challenging. As it relates to that which you all can’t really impact. This is construction costs and labor costs around the country are through the roof. I mean, they’ve doubled over the last year, not not just price of lumber, steel. It’s fun. The workers are. It’s crazy, right. And that’s something that we often just kind of hope and pray that the country is kind of levels out a little bit. But that’s a sure challenge right now. But the way you can help, and I’m sure you all talk about this. But one thing in Alabama that we do well, as far as economic development, we do many things well, on the retail front is the amendment 772 sales tax share tool that you all have, we’ve not come to yet to talk about that. But there may be a day where developer has a great brand ready to go. But they’re $200,000 off on their on their deals, it’s a gap. That’s a great tool that you all can use to share a portion of that back to the developer or the landowner or whoever it may be to close that gap. So that might be something we talked about in the future. We don’t lead with that whenever we have conversations, because some of these folks are out of state, we don’t want to say, hey, I really appreciate them.”
Councilman Green said that he thinks that for what the cost is, he thinks it is worth the investment. He also stated “I know that everybody wants to see immediate results, just like the diet plan that never works for me, you know, it’s like, Oh, I did it. Well, he only did it for a day. So you know, but we do see with sustained time and success that that does build.”
The council as well as the representative both said they want a sustained aggressive approach to retail development and confirmed that Dunkin Donuts and T-Mobile are both confirmed as coming to Jacksonville. Councilwoman Laster said that it was icing on the cake and Councilman Galloway jokingly corrected to icing on the donut!
