Cautious optimism for city retail push

After years of focusing much of their economic development energy recruiting traditional targets, manufacturing, high-tech, financial services and other sectors, Cedar Rapids city leaders have added retail to their shopping list.

Local officials have traveled to the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas to meet one-on-one with many retail prospects. The city has contracted with Texas-based retail analytics firm Buxton, which uses big and deep economic and consumer data to point the city toward prospects and enhance its sales pitch. Buxton has used its analysis to produce a list of 20 top prospects that would be a good fit for the city.

'We're going to have better access to better data and information,” said City Manager Jeff Pomeranz. 'A retailer may not realize what we have here in terms of the strengths of our economy. So having that information really helps us make an argument.”

We agree that retail recruiting is an important element in the community's continued growth and stability. The city's dual push to repair streets and build flood protection is dependent on sales tax growth, much of which is driven by retail sales.

Increasingly, having an interesting and diverse mix of retail offerings is seen as a quality-of-life issue by prospective residents and businesses.

But the city also must remember its responsibilities as a public entity while it acquires valuable data and uses it to promote economic development. Transparency and fairness should be its guiding principles. Recruiting new retail can lead to exciting announcements, but Cedar Rapids already is home to many great businesses that also could benefit from the sort of data being mined by Buxton.

Pomeranz insists the data is accessible to anyone looking to open, expand or recruit a business in the city. He cited the example of a landlord looking to fill a retail space, or a coffee shop looking to expand.

He said the city is interested in developing retail businesses from big box stores all they way down to food trucks.

'We would be willing to help,” Pomeranz said. 'We're not just trying to help big guys.”

So long as the city maintains a level playing field, its retail recruitment can be a positive. Retailers are free to offer special deals, but government shouldn't work that way.

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