May is an extremely important month in the land of Commerce City Economic Development. Every May the City sends a contingency to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) RECon Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. ICSC provides us with a chance to get in front of local, national and international retailers, brokers and developers to discuss commercial & retail opportunities in Commerce City. Last year over 30,000 people attended the conference and we expect even more to attend this year.We take our ICSC time very seriously. Michelle Hill in our division works tirelessly in the months leading up to ICSC to pre-schedule meetings with targeted retailers, brokers, and developers. Considering a recent leakage study showed that $88 million of eating place sales in Commerce City are “leaking” into surrounding cities, in addition to meeting with a variety of different retailers, restaurants are a major target for this year’s conference. We also plan to meet with our existing retailers to see how they are doing and how we can help them grow. We will also check in with any existing Commerce City developers or landowners attending the conference in order to leverage resources, share information, and, in some cases, team up at meetings with prospective retailers.
I am especially looking forward to this year’s ICSC trip because we were asked to speak about Commerce City and our retail opportunities in a section of the conference program dedicated to the public sector. Our presentation is titled “Two Distinct Markets, One Big Opportunity For Your Retail Success”. The presentation will stress the broad spectrum of retail and development opportunities we have here in Commerce City due to our two very distinct trade areas in the Northern Range and in the Southern Core part of our city. Development opportunities that will be stressed in the presentation include Victory Crossing (the area surrounding Dick’s Sporting Goods Park), the Dog Track redevelopment site, and the King Soopers Marketplace site on the Northwest corner of 104th and Chambers.
I look forward to sharing with you how this year’s ICSC trip went in next month’s Commerce Connection.
