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Public turns out for retail talk



A larger than normal audience stayed throughout a two-hour meeting Monday and listened to a presentation by Paris native Rickey Hayes of Retail Attractions, the Oklahoma firm contracted by Paris Economic Development Corp. to promote Paris as a favorable retail market.

The presentation came at the end of a meeting during which the council’s only action was to nominate Campbell Soup Co. as a Texas Enterprise Zone Project to be presented to the governor’s office by Sept. 3.

The council postponed budget discussions until workshops are scheduled; tabled action on funding the Red River Region Incubator; made no changes to a draft map for a reinvestment zone for the Residential Tax Abatement Program; and asked code enforcement officers to provide a plan of action to address possible inconsistencies in enforcement.

Hayes, who was invited by District 5 Councilman Matt Frierson to update the council on instructions PEDC gave him when he was contracted in October 2010 to do a full market analysis to determine the strength of the Paris trade area and then to market Paris to private sector investors.

Frierson said he has received a large amount of communication from constituents expressing concern about the council’s recent instructions to take funding for retail development out of the PEDC budget.

Making no commitments known, Hayes said for the past 10 months he has worked on a project with developers and local land owners that has the potential of bringing more than a $30 million investment to Paris.

“Those developers, who our company has worked with in more than a dozen other cities, are assuring our firm that they have anchors and junior anchor tenants ready to come to Paris,” Hayes said.

A $30 million investment would mean $153,000 in city property taxes; $436,500 for Paris Independent School District; $56,000 for Paris Junior College and $131,000 for Lamar County, Hayes said. An estimated gross sales of about $40 million annually would result in $500,000 in Paris sales tax at 1.25 percent and $100,000 in PEDC sales tax at a quarter of a percent. Hayes noted there are no PEDC incentives nor tax abatements involved in retail marketing.

In what Hayes termed as important information for investors, the consultant said there are opportunity gaps or retail leakage in the trade area, defined as money leaving the area because of the lack of retail choices. In a brochure used to market the Paris area, Retail Attractions estimates nearby area retail leakage to be about $290 million annually, based on data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey administered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and from the Census of Retail trade available through the U.S. Census.

Hayes called retail development a win-win situation for the city.

“People from Hugo come here to eat dinner and they spend their money and their sales tax but they don’t use our water or our sewer or tear up our roads; they just come and go,” Hayes said.

After the presentation, District 6 Councilwoman Cleone Drake said a balance between retail and industrial development is needed. She also asked Hayes who he contracts with in McAllen, the second Texas city currently using Retail Attractions, to which Hayes said the city.

District 1 Councilman Aaron Jenkins and District 1 Councilwoman Sue Lancaster both said retail is important but expressed the importance of manufacturing jobs as the basis for economic development. District 3 Councilman John Wright asked about the number of cities Hayes has contracts with, to which the consultant said about 25.

District 4 Councilman Richard Grossnickle said the contract PEDC has with Retail Attractions is tiny compared to the potential for retail development as a result of the connections Hayes has with large developers.