Category Archives: retail development

No one goes downtown anymore, it’s too crowded

As we near the last couple of shopping days before Christmas, this verse of the song of the season Silver Bells came to mind: City sidewalks, busy sidewalks Dressed in holiday style In the air there’s a feeling of Christmas Children … Continue reading

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Google puts small businesses on the map

Google puts small businesses on the map and you can help get accurate information on businesses on the web.  Businesses can go to www.gybo.com to find ways to get their information on the Internet using Google and connect, communicate and … Continue reading

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Tons of information related to locating retail business to Cheatham County

For tons of information related to retail business development in Cheatham County, check out Cheatham Connect’s Retail Development website.  It has a link to the www.retail.cheathambiz.com website, which contains demographic, income, household and consumer behavior data for Cheatham County, Ashland … Continue reading

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County Launches Business Property Webpage

The Tennessean.com has an article about Cheatham Connect’s new online database for retail/commercial/industrial properties available for sale and/or lease in the county.  A part of the Cheatham Vision plan, the online property database enhances our retail recruitment activities by helping … Continue reading

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Retail Development Data – pages and pages of data to support your Cheatham County retail site decision

I used my quiet Columbus Day holiday afternoon at home building a new economic development webpage with Cheatham County, Tennessee retail development related maps, reports and demographic information.  Whether looking at Cheatham County as a whole or looking at Ashland … Continue reading

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Retail development…. is that the guy from IKEA?

I am participating in the 2013 ICSC Tennessee/Kentucky Idea Exchange and Alliance Program this morning in Louisville, Kentucky.  Developers, brokers, retailers, commercial property owners and a few economic development professionals representing communities like Cheatham County.  It is a great venue … Continue reading

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Cheatham County Slashes Taxes on New Development

The Cheatham County Commission enhanced the county’s efforts to continue to improve its business environment by reducing their Development Tax from $3,750 to $50 and the Adequate Facilities Tax from $1.00 per square foot to 10 cents. A few years … Continue reading

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Preparation for retail recruitment meetings

George Carlin once said, “I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed.” Well, change certainly happens. We have been updating the one page marketing flyer (called a ‘slick’ due to the gloss paper it is usually printed on) for the Bon … Continue reading

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Centerville and Santa will have a big Christmas event on December 2nd

The Hickman County Chamber of Commerce will host an open house, tree lighting and downtown shopping event on Friday, December 2nd beginning at 5:00p.m. (not that there won’t be a lot of happy holiday experiences other times.)  Santa Claus will be there … Continue reading

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Open a franchise in a rural community

For those of us trying to find some time to do retail development in rural areas, the challenges are numerous.  Traffic counts and rooftops may not compete with more urban areas.  In addition, local entreprenuers and developers gravitate toward non-rural … Continue reading

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The greenfield sites are greener…

From RetailTrafficMag.com: “Hungry for Tax Revenue, Municipalities Serve Up Incentives to Lure Retailers and Developers.” Incentives shouldn’t be the seen as the first option. These communities could not be successful without funding marketing, staff and a community retail development strategy.

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Site Selection and Location Analysis…. now, where did I put that book?

I am reading an interesting book by Frank Raeon titled The A B C’s of Site Selection. For retail and restaurant businesses, developers, real estate people and economic development professionals, the recently published book has a lot of great information … Continue reading

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Rooftops, Traffic Counts and How May We Assist You?

“Middle Tennessee communities offer economic incentives to lure retailers” in The Nashville Business Journal (requires a subscription to view the complete article) includes information on how some of our neighbors are putting their money where their job creators and local … Continue reading

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Ca-ching! or Business Growth in Hickman County

Tennessee Department of Revenue just posted the October tax collection reports. Local sales tax collections for October in Hickman County were the second highest monthly collections during the period of July 2006 through October 2010. As a matter of fact, … Continue reading

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Retail Sales Recover Slowly?

“Markets Smell Recovery as Consumers Drive Retail Sales” on Bloomberg.com discusses a trend of more consumer spending. Locally, Hickman County is seeing this trend as evidenced in local sales & use tax revenue. Granted, a significant amount of the increase … Continue reading

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If sales don’t fall in a rural area, does it make a sound?

Tennessee Department of Revenue recently released August local sales & use tax collections data and collections for Hickman County is up from August of last year, making this the fifth straight month of positive growth. Yes, I know what you’re … Continue reading

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Retail Development – Test… Test… Is this thing on?

For optimum results, retail development as an economic development effort takes a collaborative effort from economic development professionals, government officials, landowners, developers, entrepreneurs, real estate professionals and the community. We tried this a couple of years ago without gaining much … Continue reading

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Retail Development – Is anyone out there?

For optimum results, retail development as an economic development effort takes a collaborative effort from economic development professionals, government officials, landowners, developers, entrepreneurs, real estate professionals and the community. We tried this a couple of years ago without gaining much … Continue reading

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Retail Development.. rewarding

For optimum results, retail development as an economic development effort takes a collaborative effort from economic development professionals, government officials, landowners, developers, entrepreneurs, real estate professionals and the community. I have arranged for TVA Economic Development’s retail expert, Chuck Marquis, … Continue reading

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Rural can provide great shopping experience at a good value

An article in today’s The New York Times, “But Will It Make You Happy?“, provides a lot of ideas on rural tourism and rural retail, even though that isn’t even the main point of the article. Spending less and spending … Continue reading

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Retail Development Presentation

For optimum results, retail development as an economic development effort takes a collaborative effort from economic development professionals, government officials, landowners, developers, entrepreneurs, real estate professionals and the community. We tried this a couple of years ago without gaining much … Continue reading

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Bon Aqua, Tennessee

With retail, it usually starts with some magical mix of rooftops, demographics and traffic counts. Communicating that message is tough and has to be multi-channel. One page, old-fashioned “slicks” (so named because they are usually printed on gloss paper) are … Continue reading

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ICSC Idea Exchange

Yesterday and today, I participated in the ICSC Tennessee/Kentucky Idea Exchange. ICSC members include retailers, developers, commercial real estate brokers, public officials and economic development professionals working hard to match the right prospect to the right piece of real estate … Continue reading

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Trend, not anomaly?

I’m not sure the answer, but local sales tax collections reported by Tennessee Dept. of Revenue for January was the highest monthly collection at $190,508.59 since July 2008.

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Black Friday…

I, like most everyone else, look forward to a special meal with family or friends on Thanksgiving Day next week. Some of us are looking to see the retail sales Black Friday and Cyber Monday brings as two of the … Continue reading

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Thirty-nine days until Christmas… and for retail sales, the good news is the news may not be too terribly bad. Gallup reports “Christmas Spending Forecast Down From a Year Ago: But if forecast holds at this level, it could mean … Continue reading

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Bad News and let’s-call-it-good-news in retail sales

The bad news — local sales tax collections* in Hickman County for last month (August) were down 2% from August 2008 ($181,430.29 and $185,235.74, respectively.) The silver lining in this gray cloud — compared to August 2007, last month’s collections … Continue reading

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Hickman County Retail Sales

Hickman County March 2009 local sales tax collections, an indicator of retail sales, returned to postitive growth compared to March 2008 collections — rebounding from declines during the previous three months. Compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, … Continue reading

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"Consumer confidence climbs"

In an article in yesterday’s Nashville Business Journal, “Consumer confidence climbs in Middle Tennessee“, the results of a Middle Tennessee State University Office of Consumer Research poll shows that consumer confidence has increased from a negative sixty-six (-66) in February … Continue reading

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Hickman County Retail sales

Hickman County February 2009 local sales tax collections, an indicator of retail sales, rebounded from the previous two months. Compared to the previous year, December was down 8.2% and January was down 9.4%. February was only down 0.1% ($149,076.18 compared … Continue reading

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