EDC holds workshop with consultant for drawing retail to Copperas Cove

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

The Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation recently held a lunchtime workshop, which included local community members and business leaders, to introduce them to a business consulting firm that helps communities like Copperas Cove draw in retail businesses. 

Casey Kidd, CEO of Fort Worth-based NaviRetail, gave a presentation on what his company does, and his experiences with how retailers decide to come to a community, and also talked about the challenges communities face when attracting retail business. 

NaviRetail has worked with more than 400 communities in 30 states, has worked with multiple retailers, and connects both communities and companies together for projects. They work with local government, private developers and brokers and provide consulting services. 

“One thing that we aim to do, is stay on top of the market, and really have a pulse on where retail is headed, what the market’s doing and how best to tackle recruiting some of these retailers to the towns and the entities that hire us,” he said. 

Next week, NaviRetail will be traveling to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), a three-day event in Las Vegas, May 21-23. This event brings together dealmakers and industry experts on all things retail. NaviRetail will be promoting Copperas Cove and sharing with retailers about what the city has to offer in terms of prospective retail sites and Copperas Cove residents’ buying power. 

Kidd and his company have developed a flyer for Copperas Cove that he will be using when he meets with retailers and site selectors at ICSC. 

“We’ve got all the facts that we need right there on a flyer because I want to spend 60 seconds to get out the message. Here’s what Copperas Cove is, here’s what it looks like as far as the numbers, where it is, and then let them talk,” Kidd said. “We’re putting all this data in front of them on the very front end versus saying, ‘Oh, when I get back in the office, I’ll send you some information,’ that sort of thing. We want to give them enough so that they have an idea pretty quickly.” 

Site selectors are busy, and for companies like Kroger, which Kidd gave as an example, they are working on existing properties and “spend a lot of their day doing things that have nothing to do with building a new store. In the instance of Kroger, I’d say about 5 percent of their day is devoted to new store development. What that means for us is, we’ve got to be really efficient with their time.” 

He also shared a real-life scenario where a mayor in another city (not in Texas) had his heart set on a Panera Bread occupying a particular retail site in the community.

“I was working with Kroger and they were trying to do a fuel center for one of their existing stores and it was on a hard corner, and the mayor came back and said, ‘No, that’s Panera Bread site.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I was like, Kroger wants to put a fuel center here. And the mayor was like, ‘No, we want to save that for Panera Bread.’ I was like, ‘Well, has anybody contacted Panera Bread?’ He said, ‘No, but that’s what we want to put there.’

“And I’m just thinking, you’ve got Kroger right here that wants to build a fuel center. They will make more revenue for the city in doing so, and you’re waiting for Panera Bread to just show up…And so again, having a mayor telling Kroger what he thought needed to be on that property, I was dumbfounded by that, but it’s something to keep in mind.

“If someone like Kroger, AutoZone or Walmart says, ‘Hey, this is what works for us,’ I promise you they’ve spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in research to make sure that that is a good decision for them because they’re the ones that have to bear that risk and that cost of capital.”

Part of the reason for the luncheon was so Kidd could meet face-to-face with Copperas Cove stakeholders prior to his trip to Las Vegas, where he will be among 30,000 attending the convention.

“If we have interest, we want to bring those back and it not be the first time that you’re meeting us. You’ve met me today, and when I call you and say, ‘Oh so-and-so’s interested in your property,’ you’ve already met me, you’ve gotten my business card, and now we can do business.”

Kidd said that some companies are cautious and will not send representatives to Las Vegas, but he plans to maximize the amount of time that they’re given in the meetings.

“We want to make sure that we’re marketing the things that will go somewhere and that’s our reputations on the line at that point. They know at this point working with our company that we’re not going to show them something that isn’t going to pencil, that has no legs. We’re going to only show them deals that could be done tomorrow if they had interest, and that’s the ones that we’re taking with us.”

He said at these meetings, these individuals aren’t the final decisionmakers but will bring that information back to a capital committee or real estate committee that makes the decisions on whether or not to spend capital or approve the site. 

Kidd said that about 65 percent of the sites they work on aren’t listed for sale. He used the example of an “Aunt Susie” who has a parcel of land that’s undeveloped. 

“It’s a great parcel of land. She’s always said she wouldn’t sell it. We know that retailers would be interested in it and we’ve identified it for a specific retailer. And we’ve invited Aunt Susie to an event just like this. We get to meet Aunt Susie and I get to tell her about what we do and tell her, ‘I think that there might be some interest in your property,’ and we get to talk with her through that process, even before we go and try to advertise it. But Aunt Susie’s land is never going to be listed at the end of the day. 

“When I looked at an aerial map, I can tell you almost exactly like what would fit really well just having worked through it… I can usually look on a map and say, ‘Yeah, that’d be a great site for Home Depot.’ But that doesn’t mean it’s listed. That just means that’s a great site for Home Depot. Well, that’s also how Home Depot looks at it. They don’t really care if it’s listed or not. They just said, ‘All right, I like that site, give me that site, and that’s typically where they end up working with brokers. They’ll have someone locally that has to reach out to Aunt Susie and say, ‘Hey, Susie, Home Depot, called me and I think they might be interested in buying your property,’ and then talking through that for her. 

“We’re not brokers, we don’t earn a commission. We’re paid for by the EDC. My job is to make sure that if you’ve got property that might be viable for Home Depot, that we’re out there marketing that and we know who to get back in contact with if they do that, because I don’t want that to be the first time that you’re hearing from me. I don’t want to call you up cold and say, ‘Hey, my name is Casey and Home Depot wants to buy your land.’ That might be a little startling. So that’s why part of our process is getting out there ahead of time and talking to people like yourself, so that when that moment ultimately arrives, we’re like all right, you know me, I know you. 

“The advantage that we have is that we already worked with all these retailers. And so there we don’t have to introduce ourselves to Home Depot. We don’t have to introduce ourselves to Walmart or Target or Lowe’s or whoever. We’re already working on projects with them. 

“What we’re adding to that is Aunt Susie has this parcel of land in Copperas Cove. I really think you should take a look at this, and then talking to them at trade shows and working through all of the potential issues or financials or whatever else. That’s where we really are.”