Cities Utilize Buxton to Get Results at ICSC

Buxton’s CommunityID® client cities positioned themselves in front of major retailers during the 2008 International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) annual trade show and convention this month in Las Vegas. More than 50,000 attendees representing all phases of the retail industry attended the Spring Convention including retailers, shopping center owners, developers, public sector officials, investors, lenders and other professionals. Communities are taking a proactive position in growing their retail sector to increase tax revenues, create jobs, satisfy citizens’ desires to shop at home, and bring new dollars into the community, while retaining dollars that are currently spent outside the community.

Equipped with trade area maps, marketing packages, customer profiles and retail leakage analysis reports, cities such as Kingsport, Tenn., Bryan, Texas and Pflugerville, Texas experienced success at ICSC.

“We received the results from our CommunityID® study just two weeks before ICSC,” said Charles Simon, assistant city manager and economic development director for the City of Pflugerville. “The information provided by Buxton was the driving force behind our meetings at the convention. We had three phenomenal meetings as a direct result of the study, and feel confident that we’ll see new retailers and restaurants opening in Pflugerville by mid-2009.” Pflugerville has a population of approximately 40,000 and is located in central Texas.

Bryan, Texas attended ICSC for the first time this year and felt confidence going into the show with Buxton on their side. “ICSC is such a large show, we knew we had a lot to learn and appreciated the guidance Buxton provided us. If we had gone in alone, it wouldn’t have been nearly as successful,” said Joey Dunn, assistant city manager for Bryan, Texas.

Jeff Fleming, assistant city manager for Kingsport, Tenn., attended ICSC for the second year in a row, providing assistance to city developers currently working in Kingsport. “Last year during ICSC, we were new to the show and Buxton information and credibility provided a great introduction to key decision-makers in the retail world that we would not have otherwise had access to,” said Jeff, “This year we used the Buxton information as our main source of data and really leveraged the information from the retail leakage and analysis report. This new report has been an extremely valuable tool for us.”

CommunityID® is a unique retail expansion strategy which provides research based tools recognized by retailers as the best method of making successful location decisions, combined with support from Buxton whose retail expertise is derived from working with over 1,700 retail clients.

Buxton is currently providing retail economic development assistance to more than 350 communities in 35 states.

Buxton recommends retail matches that each of the communities should target for attraction, allowing each community to focus its time and resources towards recruiting those retailers with which they have the best chance of success, and that will have the most positive impact on the city.

About Buxton
Since 1994, Buxton has been the industry leader in customer analytics for the retail industry. Its focus now includes healthcare organizations, consumer packaged goods manufacturers and city governments. Buxton draws from its individual- and household-level data to determine lifestyles and buying habits to clearly identify an organization’s best customers and find more like them anywhere in the U.S. Among its 1,700 clients are retailers FedExKinko’s, PetCo, California Pizza Kitchen, The Container Store and New Balance Shoes. Buxton’s founder Tom Buxton was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year® 2007 in Business Services for the Southwest Area. In 2006, Retail Traffic recognized Buxton as one of three figures “influencing the future of retail real estate.” Buxton was also selected as one of the Most Innovative Companies in the 2006 American Business Awards and was named #2 in Fast Company magazine’s 2005 Fast 50 list of top innovators and technology pioneers.

For more information, visit BuxtonCo.com.
Contact:
Courtney Hall
Communications Specialist
2651 South Polaris Drive; Fort Worth, TX 76137
Tel: 817-332-3681 Fax: 817-332-3686
chall@buxtonco.com