Coffeyville is "A dynamic retail market" where important steps have been taken to help speed up economic growth, a consultant told the Coffeyville City Commission in a special meeting Thursday.
"Both Parsons and Independence are playing second fiddle to you," Rickey Hayes said at the 90-minute meeting in City Hall.
Coffeyville's ability to work without infighting, as well as the comprehensive development plan adopted in 2010, are major assets, he said.
They're assets because infighting tends to make potential investors wary, and because long-range planning shows a community isn't merely reactive to events, Hayes said.
When a community doesn't plan ahead, it's likely to end up having to spend whatever money it has in reacting to problems as they arise, he said.
Hayes is with Retail Attractions of Owasso, Oklahoma. He and two associates, Kate Thorp and Justin Brown, reported mostly in general terms about how Coffeyville might grow.
However, Hayes mentioned specifically that "a distinct possibility" is a national steakhouse chain and an Old Navy clothing store showing serious interest in Coffeyville.
The steakhouse would expect to do about $2.5 million in business annually, he said.
Commenting on other possibilities in the area, Thorp added that grocers "are fighting to get into Caney right now."
The commission voted in April to pay $39,000 to Retail Attractions to undertake business recruitment activities and to conduct a 12-month analysis. No action was taken at Thursday's meeting.
Talking about recruitment, Hayes said Tapp Development, of Edmond, Oklahoma and "a development group from Atlanta" are among those interested in expanding into Coffeyville.
He hopes the latter will be "in town in four or five weeks."
One promising area in Coffeyville that would provide "low-hanging fruit" or "eat pickings" to new businesses is around Walmart, 2101 W. Highway 166, Hayes and Thorp said.
Many businesses pursue "shadow development," meaning they spring up around Walmart. those include "nationally known brands you know and love," Thorp said.
Commissioner Virgil Horn asked how long - assuming a business decided to open in Coffeyville - it would be until something actually happened.
From obtaining a building permit to a business opening, typically it would be 24 to 24 months, with the last six months being construction, Hayes replied.
Earlier he said Retail Attractions analyzed various data to conclude that sales in Coffeyville in 2010 were about $270 million. There was additional "leakage" to other areas," about $77 million in the same year.
The leakage included about $11.5 million in health and personal care, about $7 million in food services and about $5 million in clothing and "soft goods," Hayes said.
He said such leakage is revenue that development could keep in Coffeyville.
In about a decade, Coffeyville's population has dropped about 6.3 percent and is expected to drop another 3 percent until 2016, Hayes said.
Like many rural communities, Coffeyville has seen people go to more urbanized areas where work can be found more readily available, he said.
The remaining population is somewhat "on the older side" and about 25 percent holds a degree of some kind, Hayes said. Since about 2006, Coffeyville has added 315 new homes, which generated retail interest.
Formal action wasn't taken, but commissioners agreed to a suggestion Hayes made that he email progress reports every month and meet in executive session with them every three months.
In addition to Horn, Mayor Pam Jones and commissioners Don Edwards and David Gorge were present. Commissioner Richard Gonzales was absent.