City Council approved a $71,000 contract April 12 with Dallas-based Catalyst Commercial to complete a Retail Strategy and Recruitment Plan for the city. The plan will include a market assessment; market, competitive and property analyses; potential tenant identification; and a merchandising plan as well as a delineation of the city’s primary trade area. The consultant is also expected to include additional analyses for downtown and the Williams Drive corridor, Assistant City Manager Wayne Reed said. “This plan is a proactive strategy. It will allow Georgetown to be poised to capture its share of retail establishments and thereby strengthen our tax base,” Reed told the council during a workshop session April 12. “Conversely, it is fair to say a lack of comprehensive planning in this regard for retail will certainly present missed opportunities—some of which we won’t even know are right before our eyes.” Reed said the plan will be used to attract retailers to Georgetown and help the city with future planning. “The plan can be used [by City Council] to guide informed decisions regarding annexations, land use, downtown, gateways, transportation and utilities,” he said. The city issued a request for proposals from retail marketing consultants in January and received two bids, Reed said. “We had several criteria when we evaluated [bids] through our procurement process … qualifications, customer service, past performance, references and price as well as the specific proposals and the professional approach each firm would take,” he said. “The two proposals we received—Retail Coach and Catalyst Commercial—were really competitive. Both firms are highly qualified, but at the end of the day for the scope of work that we advertised in our request for proposals, Catalyst was the preferred consultant.” Council Member Steve Fought said he looked forward to the city working with the consultant and said he wanted to see more options for building retail close to existing residential developments. “I’d like to make it paramount that part of the consideration on retail and retail development is put that closer to the customer—as close as we can,” he said. City Manager David Morgan said the study would consider existing retail areas as well as identify new retail corridors. “This study is intended to take both of those into consideration and look at downtown as a unique retail opportunity," he said. He said the city has received a lot of feedback from community members about what types of retail and dining options are needed in the city.