For the fifth year in a row Buxton conducted a Retail Development Survey. The past 12 months have seen city leaders and retailers alike changing their strategies to keep pace with the changing marketplace.

Buxton surveyed its public sector database to benchmark the changes seen in retail. Survey results at a glance include:

• 82% Have offered incentives for retail development
• 77% Lack of financing has hindered retail development
• 70% Web sites considered limited in effectiveness of marketing
• 55% Have used Tax Increment Financing
• 54% Use incentives for locating tenants in vacant retail spaces
• 51% Are not using social media for marketing
• 50% Have a vacant big box or shopping center
• 36% Use Facebook for community marketing
• 29% Use facade of building improvement grants/loans

What retailers would you like to have in your community:

1. Lowes
2. Target
3. Kohl's

What restaurants would you like to have in your community:

1. Olive Garden
2. Applebee's
3. Cracker Barrel

Thank you to those who took time to participate in the survey. Below you will find the survey results.


Download Full Results to Survey

Buxton partnered with the Texas Municipal League to host a day-long workshop focused on retail. The workshop, titled "Positioning Your Community for Retail--Bringing Retail to Underserved Markets", included speakers from the City of Celina and the City of El Paso, and the CEO from one of the leading development companies in the state of Texas.

Topics covered during the workshop include:

• Removing Barriers that Hinder Retail Development
• Overcoming the Challenges of Reusing Vacant Buildings
• Retail Development: Tools and Techniques of Business Retention and Ethnic Consumer Insights
• Executing Your City's Marketing Strategy

Download the presentations from this event.

In a recent poll taken by the International Council of Shopping Centers, as a whole the retail and development community are looking forward to a healthier 2010.

The survey, taken by ICSC's SmartBrief publication, shows that 47% of real estate executives polled feel like federal lending programs are necessary for the commercial real estate sector to turn around. Another 37% feel that time will heal the real estate market.

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