Retail Strategies, a retail-recruitment consultant, told the City of Cleveland Economic Development Corporation on Aug. (August meeting) that the city’s trade area includes roughly 110,000 people and shows a projected five-year growth rate of 11.13 percent, a figure the firm said supports retailer interest.

The firm’s portfolio director, Madison Neil, said the team uses drive-time and mobile-device data to build a trade-area polygon and to show retailers where customers come from. “This heat map … shows someone walks in the front door of that store with a phone in their pocket,” Neil said, explaining how consultants map visitor origins to support recruitment pitches.

Neil and retail recruiter Megan Jimenez said their “discovery” phase includes a boots-on-the-ground tour, a property catalog and a prospect list of roughly 100 retail concepts that fit the market. The consultants identified food service and grocery as top leakage categories in Cleveland’s trade area and said entertainment uses — for example, combined dining and family-entertainment concepts — are increasingly pursuing secondary markets.

Jimenez said many entertainment and experiential concepts seek large “second-generation” footprints — often in the 20,000–30,000 square-foot range — and have site and cotenancy preferences. “One of the biggest hurdles … is primarily going to be second-generation space,” she said. The consultants said some brands will consider ground-up construction if land and access are right.

The consultants described outreach work at national conferences and follow-up communications to keep Cleveland on retailers’ expansion lists. They encouraged the EDC and local partners to forward property leads, franchisee prospects and brand suggestions so the consultants can maintain momentum.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the data and the trade-area definition; Madison Neil confirmed the population and income figures on the slide “were for that polygon.” The presentation did not include a board vote; it was informational only.

The consultants asked local partners to track and share available second-generation space, land parcels and franchise candidates to help overcome common retailer objections and to speed recruiting when brands plan expansion.

The presentation closed with an offer to deliver quarterly market reports and a locally tailored prospect flyer for entrepreneurs and potential franchisees.

Less critical details from the session include the consultants’ planned conference calendar (ICSC Las Vegas and RetailLive Austin) and an ongoing property pin map maintained on the firm’s platform.