Several major retailers are planning to open stores in The Woodlands in the next 12 months, adding hundreds of new jobs to an already robust retail employment market.

Costco, Nordstrom, H-E-B and Whole Foods Market will soon open stores in The Woodlands, and smaller retailers in the Creekside Park Village Center, Hughes Landing, The Woodlands Mall and Market Street either have already opened or are planning to open.

Gil Staley, president of The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership, said the strong job growth in the retail market The Woodlands is experiencing is indicative of its overall economic strength.

"A lot of us in the economic development industry look at the success of an economy by a number of factors, and one of the indicators of a healthy economy is retail," he said. "If retail is doing well, if you're seeing new retail stores and restaurants, then yes, there is a healthy economy."

New jobs

Planned for a November opening at I-45 and Hwy. 242, membership warehouse club retailer Costco is expected to add about 75 jobs, while upscale fashion retailer Nordstrom, opening Sept. 5 at The Woodlands Mall, will hire 250 new employees.

Jenny Taylor, marketing director at Market Street, said many of the jobs being offered in The Woodlands retail market are of the higher end variety and often provide an elevated level of customer service than jobs in other areas.

"Those types of retailers coming into [Market Street] provide what I would consider a different classification of personnel to the community," Taylor said. "Maybe somebody is looking for a position in the retail industry, and they want to do something at an elevated level of customer service. That's now available when in previous years it wasn't—you had to go outside of The Woodlands to find that."

Kate Hensler was named store manager of The Woodlands' Nordstrom store in June, which is working to staff the store ahead of its fall opening.

"We try to hire great sellers—people who love to sell," Hensler said. "In addition, we hire friendly, goal-oriented people, who love fashion and then empower them to make the best decision on behalf of the customer."

Grocery chain H-E-B plans to hire 300 employees for its new location that is set to open in late 2014. Whole Foods plans to open a new store sometime next year that will call for 200 employees.

Other retailers like Microsoft in The Woodlands Mall, Tyler's near the mall, Trina Turk, Vineyard Vines and Kendra Scott at Market Street have all opened in the past few months, bringing with them hundreds of retail jobs.

According to the Texas Workforce Commission, retail sales managers working in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Area earned on average about $19 per hour in 2013, while cashiers earned about $9 per hour and retail sales associates earned about $9.75 per hour.

In Montgomery County, the average annual wage for all employees working in the retail sector in 2012 was $29,692, according to the TWC.

Staley said retail jobs perform an important function in both the economy and the family dynamic.

"A lot of retail jobs, certainly in management positions, are head-of-household-type jobs," he said. "And retail lends a great support for secondary jobs, for teenagers, for young adults—these are great places of employment for young people to have jobs, which is really important to a household."

The Woodlands economy

With major employers such as Anadarko, Aon Hewitt, Baker Hughes and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, The Woodlands has established itself as a destination for corporate employment. According to The Woodlands Economic Development Partnership, 32 percent of all employees in The Woodlands area work in the energy sector.

Staley said the corporate and retail job industries effectively complement each other in creating a complete job market.

"When we see such growth as we've seen recently, of the primary jobs in The Woodlands area, that indicates a need for more retail," Staley said. "These primary jobs bring an increased daytime population, and that really supports retail so they can add to their sales activity."

According to a report by Demographics Now, a firm specializing in compiling and reporting demographic data, there were 9,456 retail jobs in The Woodlands in 2013, which made up 23.2 percent of the job market.

Demographics Now also reported the retail industry did $953.7 million in sales in The Woodlands in 2013.

"We're fortunate because we do have an ample amount of retail, and increasingly so," Staley said. "We have enough density in retail and restaurants to handle our large employee base. I hear frequently how wonderful it is to have so many places to shop and dine, and that's a huge benefit to those who work and live here."

Rip Reynolds, senior leasing manager for the Howard Hughes Corporation, which owns The Woodlands, said retail jobs improve the overall community.

"[Retail jobs] provide more jobs for people to have more disposable income, and an improved quality of life," he said.

Growth set to continue

The Woodlands will experience more retail job growth in the coming years as the Creekside Park Village Center, which will feature several services, shops and restaurants, is built out. More retail is planned for the Research Forest Lakeside development, which has locations along I-45 in Oak Ridge North and in the city of Shenandoah.

However, there may be fewer opportunities for large retailers like Costco and Nordstrom to open in The Woodlands.

"There is [growth potential], but [retailers] are limited in the number of sites available," Reynolds said. "There are not many large tracts available. We do have strategic development sites, but it would be more of a freeway-type location."

Those types of developments, Staley said, are a result of the overall economic condition in The Woodlands.

"The opportunities are there for all of us to enjoy the added retail," Staley said. "It's because of the primary job creation that we see all of this. When you have [population] density and residential [density], you bring retail, followed by health care and education."