City launches retail-market analysis, digital licensing and corridor planning efforts

An economic development staff member identified as Bill told the council the department is working on several initiatives intended to make Shreveport more attractive to retailers and to reduce administrative friction for local businesses.

Bill said the city will partner with Retail Strategies for a market analysis and retail-recruitment effort that will provide traffic counts, demographics and other indicators used by grocery and national retailers. He said that for a grocer such as Costco, site-selection standards can include a five-mile trade area with minimum population and household income thresholds; the market-analysis work will be used to craft recruitment packages and evaluate incentive needs for corridors such as MLK and North Market.

The presenter said the city is digitizing liquor-license processing and working with a vendor (MGO) to move licenses off paper; the change is intended to reduce workload at the permitting office and improve renewals and notifications. Marcus, a staff member, will lead follow-up work on the licensing cadence, including a possible two-year renewal option for some classes of permits.

On corridor and federal funding work, staff who traveled to Washington, D.C., said the city has requested roughly $5 million for improvements that could include a sound barrier near Independence Stadium and upgrades along Monkhouse Drive between the interstate and the airport. Staff said they also discussed control-tower funding, the consent-decree WIFIA loan, and other priorities with congressional delegations.

Bill said the retail strategy product will be citywide but will allow staff to isolate market cases by district. He told council members the contractor will work with the city’s planning and mapping teams to assemble usable packets for site selectors and that the first phase of analysis should be delivered in about three months.