Dickson Launches New Retail Recruitment Push With $35,000 Strategy Deal

Dickson Spending $35,000 to Improve Retail Recruitment: City officials say new contract will provide market data, training and tools to help attract businesses

The City of Dickson is investing $35,000 in a new retail recruitment strategy as officials look to strengthen their pitch to developers and bring more businesses to the community.

During its Oct. 5 meeting, the Dickson City Council approved an agreement with Retail Strategies LLC for retail recruitment consulting, market research, real estate analysis, marketing materials and training.

City officials said the goal is not simply to hire an outside company to recruit businesses on Dickson’s behalf.

Instead, they want city staff to build the knowledge and tools needed to handle more of that work internally.

City Moving Away From One-Person Approach

City Administrator David Travis told council members that Dickson had previously considered hiring a dedicated economic-development employee.

After further discussion, however, officials decided a team-based approach might work better.

Rather than relying on one person, the city has been using a group of several staff members and officials to meet with developers, answer questions and discuss potential projects.

Travis said that approach gives the city more flexibility and keeps economic-development responsibilities from falling on a single employee.

The Retail Strategies agreement is intended to support that team with more detailed market information and professional training.

The company is expected to provide a roughly six-hour training session in Dickson and give city officials access to data, leads and analytics they can use when speaking with prospective retailers and developers.

What Businesses Is Dickson Trying to Recruit?

That is the larger question behind the new agreement.

City officials said Dickson has already been meeting with developers and that interest in the city remains active.

During the council discussion, officials said they had met with approximately five or six developers over the previous four months, with another developer recently reaching out to schedule a meeting.

The city believes the Retail Strategies contract can make those conversations more productive by giving officials stronger data and a better understanding of what retailers are looking for.

That can include market demographics, spending patterns, real estate information and other analytics used to determine whether a location is a good fit for a business.

City officials said developers are already looking at Dickson.

The challenge, they said, is being able to provide the right information when those conversations happen.

Focus Is Broader Than Downtown

Council members also asked whether the agreement was tied specifically to downtown redevelopment.

Officials said it was not.

While downtown development remains one part of the city’s larger economic-development strategy, the Retail Strategies contract is intended to help recruit businesses throughout Dickson.

That could include commercial areas along major corridors and other locations where developers are considering new projects.

City officials also pointed to Dickson’s past growth, including major retail development around Lowe’s and The Crossings, as examples of how commercial investment can affect local sales-tax revenue.

Maintaining and expanding that tax base is one of the reasons officials say retail recruitment remains important.

City Wants to Keep the Expertise In-House

Officials said Dickson has worked with similar retail-recruitment information in the past, but earlier efforts were disrupted by changes in leadership and later by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This time, city officials said they want to make sure the knowledge stays within city government.

Rather than depending on an outside organization to retain the information, the goal is to train the city’s own team and make the data part of its regular economic-development work.

The agreement was approved pending final review of the contract language by the city attorney.

City leaders said the training could include multiple members of staff and potentially council members as well.

For taxpayers, the immediate cost is $35,000.

The larger measure of success will come later: whether better market data and stronger recruitment efforts translate into new stores, new development and additional sales-tax revenue for Dickson.