LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The Arkansas Economic Development Commission has selected six towns to participate in a new program that provides training and assistance to rural communities to help attract businesses.
“Attracting retail opportunities is a critical component to keeping local communities growing and vibrant,” said Clint O'Neill, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. “The Retail Academy program provides local economic developers with the resources and knowledge they need to recruit retail businesses to their communities.”
Participating communities include Crossett, Hope, Marion, Morrillton, Newport and Stuttgart.
The Retail Academy program provides rural communities with resources ranging from training to market research and technical assistance to help businesses hire and grow.
Each town selected for the program seeks to attract residents who invest and spend in their communities.
“In the case of Newport, we have a lot of people who drive into town to work here and then go home somewhere else,” said John Chadwell, executive director of the Newport Economic Development Commission. They live in neighboring communities,” he said.
“When we survey those people, they want housing, so we're working on housing development, and they want more retail options. ..If you talk to most people in town, it's going to be restaurants, they want comfortable seating…restaurants, places where you can go to have dinner with your family, clothing that gets asked a lot. A store, maybe another grocery store,” Chadwell told KATV.
There's a similar story in Hope, Arkansas.
“I think people go to larger communities when it's convenient, and we're having a little bit of a hard time with that,” said Anna Powell, president of the Hempstead County Economic Development Corporation.
“We have two interstate exits here and a lot of locally-owned businesses, but we've never really tried to recruit a particular chain or a particular restaurant. “I feel there is a gap,” Powell said.
Retail Strategies, the Alabama municipal consulting firm that manages the Retail Academy program, is ready to provide Newport, Hope, and other towns with the resources they need to overcome these obstacles.
“We do customized market research for each community, looking at prime real estate that appears viable for either new development, highest and best use, or backfilling of existing space. We also certified retailers and restaurants that should be in that community, but they're not,” Lacey Beasley, president of Retail Strategies, told KATV.
The Retail Academy program provides one year of support to rural communities as they develop and implement growth plans.
“The better and more vibrant the retail industry in a rural area, the more it attracts human infrastructure, people to the community. “It's going to attract a lot of people,” Beasley said.
And it looks like Retail Strategies' retail strategy is already working in Newport.
“In fact, we hired Retail Strategies ourselves a few years ago to help us recruit and acquire new hotels in town, and they did that. ,” Chadwell said. “We now have the new hotel we sought through their support, so we are very excited to be working with them again. We know it will be successful.”
The Retail Academy program launches on Tuesday and will run until September next year.
