Consultant: Old Town Portsmouth trade area shows $428 million leakage, supports more dining and specialty retail

Consultant Tripp Muldrew told the Portsmouth Economic Development Authority on Aug. 18 that a custom trade area for Old Town Portsmouth represents roughly $4.6 billion in annual retail sales and about $428 million in unmet consumer spending — "leakage" the city could potentially capture.

Muldrew, of Barnett Muldrew, said he drew a trade boundary centered on 421 High Street that excludes most of Norfolk and includes parts of Suffolk and Chesapeake to better reflect where Old Town attracts customers. He said Claritas retail-sales data placed the trade-area market at about $4.6 billion, with consumer expenditures near $5.0 billion and a delta of roughly $428 million.

Muldrew told the authority that, using conservative capture assumptions, the trade-area leakage translates into supportable space and retailers in several categories. Examples he gave: a modest independent specialty food and beverage store…