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Consultant presents retail market study to Fort Atkinson council
Summary
Consultant Corey Mahaffey of Grow Services Group presented a retail market study on Jan. 6, highlighting Fort Atkinson’s trade-area strengths, a 389-respondent survey sample, and targeted retailer concepts the city can use to recruit development.
Corey Mahaffey of Grow Services Group told the Fort Atkinson City Council on Jan. 6 that his firm’s retail market study is intended as a due-diligence tool for the city, developers and potential investors. “I think we’ve got a really good study here, which I think translates to a good tool, for the community, and for potential developers and investors as a as a due diligence tool as well,” Mahaffey said.
Mahaffey said the report focuses on concepts and site potential rather than promising particular national brands. He noted that residents frequently name aspirational retailers but that those brands do not always invest in tertiary rural markets. “You’ll see some things in there from a brand perspective that sometimes may not make sense given our populations,” he said, contrasting Chipotle (which he said often will not enter smaller markets) with Qdoba and other concepts that more commonly locate in communities Fort Atkinson’s size.
The study identifies a mix of greenfield and shovel-ready sites and highlights local advantages Mahaffey said are attractive to retailers: a trade-area pull factor of about 1.1, roughly an 11% increase in daytime population driven by employment, comparatively strong household incomes for a rural Midwestern community, and multiple interstate interchanges near the city.
On methodology, Mahaffey described the use of GIS and Esri tapestry segmentation to classify consumer life-mode groups in the trade area. He said Esri projects taxable sales will grow by about 8.9% over five years under typical assumptions. Mahaffey also emphasized the study’s primary research: the report drew 389 full survey respondents, which he said exceeds the approximately 370 respondents needed for a ±5% margin of error at 95% confidence for the city’s adult population.
The report includes a targeted-candidate list (page 38) of restaurant, retail and service concepts that have located in similar markets; Mahaffey recommended that economic development staff and the chamber use the data when meeting with developers or attending industry events. “You can use some of this information as sort of an icebreaker,” he said, suggesting the city share the full report with brokers and corporate real-estate representatives to set appointments and make the business case for Fort Atkinson.
Mahaffey offered to provide additional housing-response data to city staff; the council thanked him and took no formal action on the study during the meeting.
