By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – What a novel idea. Three North Texas suburbs come together to work out a problem, to understand how retail development works, to bridge the gap between the public and private retail sector, and to pinpoint the opportunities for each community. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Middays.
An amazing thing took place over the past year - Plano, Richardson and Carrollton joined forces to . Every community's got 'em - those ghost town strip malls that we wish would just go away. After reading the article in today's Dallas Morning News, I called Anne Ricker, principal of Leland Consulting Group in Denver. They conducted this study.
One of the unique parts about this study is that these three communities worked together to learn what they could do. We know there's a high level of pride and competition among neighboring towns. And they are all exceedingly dependent on retail tax dollars. Up until now, these suburbs like all others have blindly taken on retail development, to be left high and dry in a few years. Ms. Ricker explained that retail markets change about every seven years. It's gradual.
Brokers, homeowner, property owners, business representatives, and elected officials from each suburb united to make up the advisory board. Each month as this almost-yearlong study went on, the board was consulted on Leland's findings. This way, the advisory board could have real input on why things are the way they are; leases that can't be broken, regulatory elements, etc.
But it was the dialogue between the cities themselves and the private retail sector that made this study such a huge success. They all learned primarily what is their existing retail picture relative to future trends, and how to use demographics to change the current image. It's much more challenging to take an already-developed mall and revitalize it. That's why developers go out further and build new ones. I can't wait to see the results. For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m. To contact Maxine Shapiro, please send emails to mshapiro@kera.org.