SANGER – The city of Sanger added another tool to its economic development toolbelt by bringing on an outside consultant to help recruit retailers to the area.
The Sanger City Council voted 4-0 on March 20, with Mayor Frank Gonzalez absent, to enter into a three-year contract with national consulting firm Retail Strategies. A presentation from Retail Strategies Director of Community Partnerships Jessica Bohlen had council members excited about the scope of work the firm will engage in and is eager to get started.
“You can think of Retail Strategies as the broker for the city,” Bohlen said. “Our job is to put your best interest in front of all the local brokers, the commercial developers, the community leaders, the retailers and tenant reps and property owners.”
Sanger will pay Retail Strategies $45,000 annually for a wide range of services, totaling $135,000 over three years; the cost was already included in the fiscal year 2024-25 budget. Community Development Director David Brletic said the city budgets for these types of services each year and has been in contact with Retail Strategies for many years but wanted to wait until it was the right time to fully bring them on.
Considering work the city has done over the last five years related to the North Academy Avenue annexation, as well as water and wastewater infrastructure improvements expected in the next year, Brletic said the city is in a spot where they think they are ready.
Retail Strategies will provide Sanger with market data and analytics, marketing materials, a real estate inventory and networking support. Councilmember Michael Montelongo said he sees this partnership as a great opportunity for Sanger.
“I see some of the smaller cities and what they’re trying to do, and … I saw on Facebook about Selma, they want to get their people together and look at Costco, but they don’t have you, they don’t have CrisCom, they don’t have the things that we already have and the tools we’re gonna get, and so I think we’re going in the right direction,” Montelongo said.
Bohlen detailed the hands-on process Retail Strategies will take with Sanger to attract national chains, including restaurants and general merchandisers, to the city. First, Retail Strategies will engage in a “discovery” mode — which Bohlen said will make up the bulk of the first year it works with the city — to gather data and analytics on the region.
As part of this discovery phase, Retail Strategies will identify Sanger’s custom trade area, which shows not just how many people live or work in the city but how many people travel through it on a regular basis. This will identify market opportunities, demographics and where Sanger experiences leakage — meaning the economic areas where the city is losing money because people go elsewhere to get the services they want.
Next, Retail Strategies will create an inventory of all commercial real estate in the city.
“This is on-market, off-market, any available land, and we are looking for this home-run real estate,” Bohlen said. “We’re looking at signage and visibility, we’re looking at the market as if a retailer were to be here shopping for a new site. All of these things are gonna drive the decisions into new retail coming into the city.”
Bohlen said the results of this inventory and the site criteria for retail prospects will be included in the firm’s final retail strategy report created for this city. Further, Retail Strategies will connect with property owners, brokers and developers to build relationships and help fill those spaces. The firm’s team will help with marketing or leasing a space as a service provided on behalf of the city, Boheln said.
With these elements, Retail Strategies will deliver Sanger a “retail recruitment plan” that is a 70-plus page ever-evolving document that outlines the firm’s plan to bring retail to the city. As part of this, Sanger will also receive a marketing guide that includes all of the information prospective retailers will want to hear.
This will be particularly helpful when it comes time for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) conference that Sanger council members and staff are planning to attend in Las Vegas in May. Bohlen said that many city representatives will go up to retailers and talk about their great community events, but that’s not what the retailers want to hear; the marketing guide will have all the information needed for retailers to make decisions about where to bring their business.
Councilmember Esmeralda Hurtado said she liked the support that Retail Strategies will provide to the city during conferences, particularly with following up on conversations and connections made. Although the full retail recruitment plan will not be ready for the May ICSC conference, Bohlen said Retail Strategies will be able to provide Sanger with a marketing guide by then.
