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Wagoner economic developer outlines retail-recruitment findings; county-funded consultant flags grocery and corridor gaps
Summary
Darla Heller, Wagoner County economic developer, updated the Wagner Economic Development Authority on a one-year retail-recruitment contract. Consultants used Placer.ai visits, peer and gap analyses and identified grocery leakage and two corridor sites as top opportunities; consultants will report quarterly.
Darla Heller, the economic developer for Wagoner County, briefed the Wagner Economic Development Authority on Dec. 1 about work completed in the first four months of a one-year retail-recruitment contract with consultant Veil Strategies. Heller said the county contributed $50,000 to the effort and the city paid a nominal $4,000–$5,000 to participate.
"The county did put in $50,000," Heller said while outlining the contract's scope, and she described two documents she distributed to council members: a one-page community summary and a thicker retail strategies packet. She said the consultant defined the trade area, performed gap and peer analyses, and is building relationships with national retailers to market Wagner as a potential location.
Heller described the consultant's data sources and methods, including cell-phone visit estimates (Placer.ai) used as a proxy for retail traffic. She said the Wagner Walmart ranked 29 out of 35 regional Walmart stores on unique visits and the Wagner McDonald's ranked 12 out of 69 McDonald's in the broader trade area — metrics the consultant uses to benchmark local retail foot traffic.
She identified grocery stores as the largest leakage category in a gap analysis, meaning residents are leaving the trade area for grocery purchases, and said the consultant had inventoried two primary corridor areas (Highway 69/51 and 15th Street) and prepared a top-10 list of potential sites. "This document ... gives every all the details about Wagner that any developer or retailer would want to see in their decision making process," she told the board, offering council members one-on-one follow-ups to review site lists and data.
Heller cautioned that landing a major national retailer can take years — she cited a nearby example that took about three years from initial outreach to announcement — and asked council members to provide local feedback to refine site priorities and prospect lists. She also committed to correcting a mapping error noted by council staff and to provide corrected contact information to staff for distribution.
Next steps: Heller said the consultants will continue prospecting and will report to county staff and the mayor on a quarterly basis; she encouraged council members and the chamber to use the materials in outreach and to request additional data as needed.
