Commerce City was well represented at this year’s International Council of Shopping Centers Global Retail Real Estate Convention (ICSC RECon). A record number of meetings and a public presentation of the city’s retail opportunities were used to promote the city at this leading annual retail real estate convention.The city’s team of representatives, consisting of Mayor Pro Tem Tracey Snyder, Councilman Jason McEldowney, City Manager Jerry Flannery, Deputy City Manager Tom Acre, Economic Development Director Brittany Morris and Economic Development Specialist Michelle Hill, attended the convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 22 – 25.
Overall the convention was a positive experience and attendees came prepared to make deals. General opinions were that while retailers are expanding, capital is more available and deals are getting done, growth in the retail markets will be modest and cautious through the rest of this year.
More than 30,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors representing retailers (including restaurants and hotels), developers, real estate brokerage firms, municipalities and other segments of the retail industry participated in RECon this year. As in the past, the team pre-scheduled meetings and registered for special networking events. Together, these ensured the team would have at least 29 meetings.
Planning and flexibility were critical. The team was able to divide, allowing for multiple meeting to be scheduled at the same time, and also creating more opportunities to obtain walk-up meetings with exhibitors and other attendees.
In their effort to present Commerce City to as many retail industry representatives as possible, team members walked more than 15 miles crisscrossing the huge convention center. In the end, these efforts paid off, with nearly 80 meetings – a record number!
“It felt different this year,” noted City Manager, Jerry Flannery. “There is generally a cautious optimism and people seem to be anticipating continued economic growth.”
Councilman Jason McEldowney agreed. “The tone and the energy were markedly different at this year’s convention. Companies, landowners and brokers alike seem to have moved on from the ‘doom and gloom’ attitudes of 2009 to a more positive outlook that includes plans for future expansion in Commerce City. It was great to partner with our Economic Development team in these meetings and hear firsthand the respect that so many of the people we met with have for our planning and ED teams. This year’s team all had prior experience with the convention, and it really enabled us to get right to work more and accomplish so much this year.”
Many companies complimented Commerce City’s continued aggressive approach to promoting the city for future retail growth and attraction. The City’s team was consistently recognized for past efforts to build relationships and look to the future, even when the economic climate was so severely impacting the retail industry. Continuing to build relationships in the retail industry will help to ensure the city is positioned for success when the economy truly turns around.
“Our efforts over the last several years are paying off,” said Tom Acre, Deputy City Manager. “We heard over and over that Commerce City is known and recognized amongst the retail community as a place ‘they want to do business.’ We have established a number of strong relationships with retail industry representatives and the meetings were productive because people look forward to learning what’s new in the city.”
In addition to meetings, both pre-scheduled and walk-up and networking events, this year the team took advantage of a new opportunity - a public presentation of the city’s retail opportunities. The presentation was titled “Two distinct markets, one big opportunity!” Brittany Morris, Economic Development Director, presented the Commerce City retail trade area as a whole, and provided more in-depth information on the city’s two distinct retail sub-markets. Victory Crossing, the Mile High Greyhound Park and Reunion Marketplace were featured retail development and redevelopment opportunities within the city.
As an added benefit, this public PowerPoint presentation provided free publicity for the city. The scheduled presentation was listed in all convention program materials and a PDF of the presentation slides is now published on the ICSC website, along with a city information sheet.
“I am grateful to ICSC for providing the opportunity for a public presentation,” said Mayor Pro Tem Tracey Snyder. “As an elected official, I am very sensitive to how we use taxpayer funds, and I appreciate that we were able to promote retail opportunities in our city to the more than 30,000 convention attendees without incurring additional expense. I am very proud of our Economic Development staff for working to ensure that Commerce City was one of the few municipalities, and the only municipality from Colorado, to seize this incredible opportunity,” Snyder continued.
An estimated 80 meetings with retail and development representatives, a public presentation and free publicity for the city all contributed to making this year’s ICSC RECon a great success.
