Retailers not aware that Rome is still a regional draw
The Kmart site is getting a lot of interest.
Retail recruitment consultant Chuck Branch is convinced from just under a year’s worth of work on behalf of the city of Rome that a lot of retailers are not aware of the city’s real market size.
“Rome draws from most of Northwest Georgia and over into Alabama,” Branch told city commissioners during the second day of their twoday retreat
NextSite Managing Partner Branch and Andy Camp, vice president for business development, stressed that their research has indicated the actual trade area size at close to 240,000 people while the primary figure a lot of retailers see when they first look at Rome is the base population figure — 35,000.
“It’s easy to expand the number of conversations you’re having when you use the larger figure,” Branch said, derived by use of mobile mapping features that track the movement of shoppers’ smart phones.
“Nobody understood that you’re pulling people from Centre, Alabama, and you’re pulling people from Bremen and you’re pulling people down from Summerville,” Branch said.
Branch also said the average household income within that trade area is right at $56,000, which puts Rome in the “sweet spot” for many retailers.
“If it was below $50,000 we’d have some issues,” Branch said.
The former Kmart location in East Rome, the area around Mount Berry Mall and downtown have been identified as areas of particular significance for the study — but they’re not leaving other areas out.
“We’re marketing anything and everything in Rome,” Branch said.
Commissioners were told that Branch was aware of a number of people who want to be in the old Kmart location, but that the existing owners have thus far not been willing to sell.
“We’ve got some key pieces of property that we’ve just got to find a way to get reprogrammed,” Camp said.
The consultants identified a number of peer communities and encouraged leaders to visit those communities themselves to see what’s working in
those areas. “In Alabama, we’re comparable with Florence, Gadsden and Phenix City. In South Carolina and North Carolina there are Spartanburg, Goldsboro, and Salisbury. And in Tennessee there are Cookeville, Columbia and Morristown.”
Their report showed 2016 retail expenditures in Rome totaling more
than $291.3 million. Expenditures in the peer communities ranged from a high of $370.3 million in Florence to $235.4 million in Morristown.
“This is some incredible information,” said City Manager Sammy Rich. “It’s up to us to push it out to help the community take advantage of it and help it grow.”