Short-term fixes help fill void left by vacant director position

Leander kicked off 2013 by implementing a new short-term economic development strategy in hopes the growing city can catch up to its nearby counterparts in sales tax revenue.

Last year, Leander ranked last among major Williamson County cities in per capita sales tax collections—a fact that long eluded city officials because of steady annual gains. Leander collected $71.93 per person in sales taxes, well short of Cedar Park's $133.19 per capita sales tax gains and substantially less than the $310.64 Round Rock collected per person.

"It's eye-opening once you see the results," Leander Economic Development Manager Eric Zeno said. "So, anything that can help us grow—I'm all for it."

Zeno has helped fill the void left by Kirk Clennan, who resigned in October as the city's economic development director. Leander will hire a new full-time economic development director by the end of 2013, City Manager Kent Cagle said. In the meantime, the city is cobbling together several strategies in hopes of immediately boosting Leander's retail presence.

The Retail Coach

First and foremost, the city is counting on The Retail Coach, an Austin-based consultant, to help keep Leander from losing any more shoppers to nearby cities.

"We know we have tremendous leakage," Cagle said. "That's the best way to put it. Some of it we're not ever going to stop, but we'll try to keep it from getting worse."

Cagle initiated a deal with The Retail Coach following the Jan. 12 Leander City Council retreat. The $40,000 agreement did not require City Council approval because it falls below the $50,000 maximum threshold for city expenditures. That allowed Aaron Farmer, The Retail Coach vice president, to immediately begin analyzing Leander.

"We work with a lot of communities that don't have a big enough staff to take on full-time economic development, but we're not looking to come in and replace any E.D. director," Farmer said. "We're looking to be a partner with the city and make sure we're that extra marketing arm."

Farmer will lead a six-phase approach that includes tracking shopper trends, origins and regional competition. Once he has identified the city's likeliest potential retailers, Farmer and The Retail Coach will work during the next 12 months with Leander to help attract those new businesses.

Even one major retail development will make the initiative a success, Cagle said.

"I don't think anybody in the industry makes any guarantees, but we have a better chance when we're armed with all the right information and with people who are experienced in that specific area," he said.

Farmer has already started a license plate analysis, which reviews from where shoppers outside of Leander are coming. Georgetown utilized The Retail Coach for a similar study last year.

Mark Thomas, Georgetown's economic development director, said the information gained has been helpful in affirming the city's strategy to become a wine-lover's destination.

"It was a question we kept asking ourselves: Where would we make those investments, and who would we market toward?" Thomas said. "Without concrete information, it was a matter of opinion."

The Retail Coach will scout out various locations throughout Leander during at least three visits to accurately assess the city's retail reach. That information will then be compiled with the rest of the consultant's findings and marketed to potential retailers.

"When the first results came in, I thought, 'Holy smokes. That's completely different than what I thought,'" Thomas said. "It was the same result every time, so I felt very confident in the data. It's basically irrefutable evidence."

But convincing data is no longer enough to convince retailers to relocate, Farmer said.

"We take it a step further and spend time in a community and actually understand all the dynamics a computer wouldn't," he said. "Most of the time that's what it takes to sell a community to a retailer."

Economic Development Committee

Since September, Leander Mayor Chris Fielder has chaired the Economic Development Committee to get residential feedback on ongoing initiatives. So far, he said, the response has been encouraging.

In particular, Fielder said the city already anticipates more retail at The Gateway of Leander shopping center between Lowe's and Kohl's in 2013. There is also expected to be more retail offerings at the H-E-B Plus shopping center, and an automotive-type business is coming to Leander this year as well, he said.

The committee has also discussed branding strategies for the city's transit-oriented development district near the Capital Metro Park & Ride station. The largely vacant land has long been considered the development centerpiece for Leander, a point not lost on Fielder.

"We know what to do, and we're trying to do it. Now we just need to let it all develop out," Fielder said. "If we had one major developer come in and buy 100 acres and develop it, it'd blow up like 1890 Ranch [shopping center in Cedar Park]."

Zeno serves as a staff resource for the committee, which identifies many of the wants and needs of Leander residents. Once the new economic development director is hired, he will also work with that person to help acclimate him or her with the city's many ongoing retail initiatives.

But most of those initiatives will be on hold, Zeno said, until Leander attracts more primary employers.

"In the next 10 years, Leander is going to be the place," he said. "The next wave is already here, and we need to be ready for it."