05-02-2007 City works aggressively to market retail opportunities

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Organizations represented included Prudential One Realty, CB Richard Ellis, FM Stone Commercial, Grubb & Ellisl Cressy & Everett and the Small Business Development Corp. Schalliol armed the agents and developers with a CD full of market data, maps, demographics and customized marketing packages for 20 specific retailers, which research has indicated have excellent opportunities in South Bend. Those retailers include booksellers like Barnes & Noble and The Book Rack; restaurants like Bennigan's, Cracker Barrel, Old Chicago and Olive Garden; and others like Dillard's department store, The Sports Authority and Walgreen's. The data was unearthed by Buxton Co., a market research firm that received a$60,000 city contract to perform the kind of data mining that retailers consider essential to making decisions about expansion sites. Using this data, Jimmy John's added new stores downtown and in Erskine Village to join its existing outlet at Ironwood Road and South Bend Avenue. And this spring, Texas Roadhouse is breaking ground on a$1 million to $1.5 million new restaurant next to Lowe's in Erskine Commons. "The city is seeing just with Texas Roadhouse a quality return on investment," said Schalliol, who has scheduled meetings with other retailers at the Las Vegas show. "My hope is to really spend some time with companies like Sports Authority and a couple of others to show how South Bend would be a great first market for their chain." Joining Schalliol in the presentation at DTSB Matthew P. Montgomery, an assistant vice president with Buxton, who provided illustrations of how developers and real-estate agents can use the research made available to them by the city. Buxton produced data that allowed the city to "factually identify which ... specific retail and restaurant concepts should be in your community," Montgomery said. While retail decisions once were made on population numbers alone, more companies are looking at specific data of consumer behavior that can project numbers of their kind of customers. For example, cities of 100,000 and 30,000 may end up with roughly the same number of prospects for a Ben and Jerry's store, simply because a greater concentration of customers matching the Ben and Jerry's profile live in the smaller community. For South Bend, Buxton examined four specific retail locations: • Western Avenue and Lombardy Drive. • Lincolnway West and Bendix Drive. • Jefferson Boulevard and Michigan Street(downtown). • Indiana Avenue and Michigan Street. Near the downtown area, for example, the research has demonstrated a $2.4 billion retail potential among 177,217 residents within a 10-minute drive time. The findings uncovered a high concentration of three specific customer segments out of the 66 used by marketers nationwide. They include: ■ "Bright Lights, Li'l City"—Middle-aged couples who are college-educated professionals with no children. This segment shows a higher likelihood to shop at J. Crew, own or lease a BMW, eat at Chevy's Mexican restaurant or buy men's shirts