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Council renews Buxton retail recruitment software for economic development
Summary
The council approved a $28,000 renewal of Buxton retail recruitment software for another year to support proactive retail attraction and site matching, after staff negotiated a lower annual fee and described use cases and recent leads.
The Porterville City Council approved an annual renewal of the Buxton retail recruitment platform at a reduced cost of $28,000 for the contract year, after staff said the tool is used daily to research and reach out to prospective retailers.
Director Calderon described Buxton as a key tool that allows staff to generate customized demographic and market reports, identify expanding retailers and prepare tailored outreach. Calderon told the council the platform helped create leads and supported more than 40 meetings in the prior year; she also cited a confidential lead on a national retailer generated with Buxton reports.
Vice Mayor McCurvey moved that the city not renew Buxton and argued the city could rely on other publicly available or in-house data, but the motion did not receive a second. Councilmembers who supported the renewal noted that Buxton compiles proprietary, formatted data and speeds staff's ability to run targeted reports rather than requiring staff to assemble datasets manually.
The council approved staff's recommendation to pay the annual fee and continue using the platform while staff pursues opportunities to partner regionally or share costs with neighboring jurisdictions in the future.
