ALBEMARLE — At the Albemarle City Council meeting on Aug. 19, councilmembers were briefed with a retail recruitment update from Retail Strategies LLC, who provided its annual review of activities and services to the city.
For the past decade, the firm has teamed up with Albemarle to assist the city with business recruitment and retention, bolstering the recent additions of Starbucks, Jersey Mike’s, Chick-Fil-A, Biscuitville, Aspen Dental, Planet Fitness, and others.
Joshua Davis, portfolio director for Retail Strategies, gave an overview of the retail economy and the activity that the firm saw in Albemarle during the preceding year.
“Our firm is a full-service advisory firm and we work as an extension of the city of Albemarle, with the economic development team,” Davis said. “We pretty much take over the day-to-day of the commercial real estate as far as retail recruitment for the city.”
He noted that Retail Strategies is currently in the process of negotiating with two full-service restaurants, two regional grocers, and a national beauty retailer for a potential move to Albemarle.
Regarding Retail Strategies’ specific relationship with Albemarle, Davis said that the firm spends “a lot of time and attention” at its head office in Birmingham, AL, focusing on retail recruitment through comprehensive data and a demographics package.
“Data and demographics can change year over year, so it’s important to us — when we’re affiliated with certain cities — to have this refreshed year over year. It helps us better serve our communities that we work with and it helps us speak the language to different retailers that we come across.”
Retail Strategies uses mobile data tracking and gap analysis to track the demographics of shoppers in Albemarle and to see what location they are coming from; the analysis can also indicate what retail services aren’t available within a local radius.
Davis said that his firm has tuned in to the upward trajectory of retail patterns in the city and how they operate exponentially.
“I say ‘retail builds on retail’ because a lot of these guys like to see some of their peers in the market for whatever reason,” he added. “They don’t like to be the first one to hold their flag and take advantage of a new market. But if you already have a certain tier of retails that are in the market, it creates a more compelling story for different retailers to come into the market.”
Following Davis’ presentation, Councilman Chris Bramlett spoke on the current situation where Albemarle has a chance to ride the wave of retail expansion, offering local customers even more shopping options and keeping them within the city limits.
“I’ve seen this before, and we have an incredible opportunity here. We’ve got far too many people shopping outside our area. It’s almost unbelievable to see,” Bramlett said.
Davis reaffirmed Retail Strategies’ commitment to making sure that Albemarle can continue to open its doors to new businesses, as well as the follow-up businesses that come along with them.
The Albemarle City Council is set to meet again on Sept. 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.