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City of McAllen Hires Retail Attractions, LLC To ‘Fill In The Gaps’



McAllen, Texas, has been recently recognized by the likes of Forbes and Entrepreneur magazines as a city on the rise. Known as a retail hub for south Texas and with a heavy, proven cross-border market draw, McAllen easily supports a retail market larger cities covet. But city leaders are listening to residents who consistently ask for more “destination retail.”

McAllen has multiple Walmart and Target locations, for instance, but residents still must drive for some specialty goods and services.

“It’s time to get ahead of the recovery curve as retailers start looking for new locations,” Richard Cortez, Mayor of McAllen, said. “We want to fill in the gaps and give our citizens what they want.”

To examine the market, identify the opportunities and strategically market McAllen to the retail community, McAllen officials decided to hire outside expertise. “No one at the city has ever focused on drawing the attention of specific retail developers,” Cortez said.

However, McAllen, known as South Texas’ retail hub, has a solid retail track record.

“We’ve had previous success in bringing in retail, and that’s not broken. Our needs now are different, though. Attracting the types of retail we want will take a more personal approach because top retailers don’t always give McAllen the look we deserve,” Steve Ahlenius, President and CEO of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, said.

After much research, the city of McAllen hired retail development consultants Retail Attractions, LLC from Tulsa, OK to solve their first impression problems.

“Our marketplace is different. It doesn’t fit into a neat demographic package because we are a border city and because we serve a large population,” Keith Patridge, President of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation, said.

Rickey Hayes, owner of Retail Attractions, agreed. “This is a different type of retail recruitment effort. It’s a more thoughtful, deliberate and personal effort and it’s tailored to McAllen’s unique market dynamics.”

McAllen has a strategic business plan in place that was drafted and approved after a year-long public process. The linchpin of the plan is attracting and retaining destination retail to McAllen.

“Hiring Rickey and his team is a natural outgrowth of the city’s focus on implementing our strategic plan,” Cortez said.

The contract McAllen signed with Hayes is for 25 months, a nod to typical development timelines which range from 18 to 36 months from interest to activity. While McAllen is the first Texas city to be directly represented by Retail Attractions, Hayes and his team have worked with Texas developers and sites for several years, and Hayes is a native Texan hailing from Paris, Texas.

“Rickey’s reputation and track record are outstanding, and when we met with him there was a synergy and we felt our philosophies for doing business and seeking what McAllen needs were very compatible. We didn’t want to just blast data at people. We wanted a more personal, highly knowledgeable and targeted approach,” Mike Perez, City Manager, said.

McAllen is home to the La Plaza Mall, a Simon Properties Group holding that, according to Simon, is a consistent top performer, generating sales of more than $650 per square foot.

In 2008 the City of McAllen achieved over $3.57 billion in total retail sales, making it:

6th in total Retail Sales Per Household ($ 82,819)
5th in Retail Sales Per Capita ($ 27,496)
3rd in Per Capita Sales Tax Collections ($349)

(2008 numbers, as compared to other Texas cities, from McAllen Chamber of Commerce)