The Jackson City Council voted against expanding the scope of work for a recruiter that has been unsuccessful in drawing retailers to downtown.
The council voted in January 2021 to hire retail recruiter NaviRetail to target merchants for downtown.
NaviRetail was to analyze the market, identify what the market is missing and inventory real estate available in downtown for a potential retailer.
Securing one to two national retailers over the course of 18-24 months “would be a certain level of success for us,” said Jhai Keeton, deputy director of planning and development for the city of Jackson, after NaviRetail was hired.
That has not happened.
NaviRetail used data about the city to connect with 30 retailers deemed to be a fit for downtown but did have not any success, he said.
The city does not have “an after-five downtown” and downtown has “a weak population on the weekends,” he said, naming reasons why NaviRetail failed to attract merchants.
Downtown Jackson Partners estimates 400-450 people live in downtown Jackson.
Keeton said NaviRetail has compiled data that could be useful in determining a future retail strategy. “What we did accomplish was getting our data, who we are and what we look like to retailers,” he said.
NaviRetail has a contract for two more years to recruit retailers to downtown and will continue those efforts, Keeton said. The first year of a three-year contract usually involves collecting data and then courting retailers for the market, he said.
The council voted down changing NaviRetail’s focus to updating the city’s feasibility study for a convention center hotel. “It would be a better use of funds for them to work on a convention center hotel instead of recruiting retailers,” Keeton said.
The city lacks a convention center hotel that some believe would increase the use of the Jackson Convention Complex. In 2019, the city began talks with two firms it hoped would develop the roughly eight-acre site across from the convention complex, but nothing happened.
The use of the retail recruiter is something new for the city. “We wanted to do something different,” Keeton said.
Ashby Foote of Ward 1 said he would rather hire another city employee to work on a feasibility study instead of expanding the work of NaviRetail. It was proposed that NaviRetail receive a contract that would not exceed $40,000 and would extend from March 29 through Feb. 28, 2024.
Virgi Lindsay, who represents Ward 7 and serves as council president, said she agreed with Foote.
“I think we need to beef up our own department so we can address these issues internally,” she said.
Angelique C. Lee of Ward 2 also agreed with Foote and Lindsay.
“We have not seen any deliverables from this company,” she said, noting that the convention center staff should be working on a feasibility study for a convention center hotel.
