RIPE FOR EXPANSION

There could be a Target, Olive Garden or J.C. Penny coming to Iberia Parish if Mike Tarantino and Mayor Hilda Curry are successful in recruiting retailers identified in a recently completed study to be a perfect fit for Iberia Parish.

The first comprehensive retail study ever done of Iberia Parish was commissioned by the Iberia Industrial Development Foundation and the city of New Iberia in October. Buxton, a Texas-based company that matches profiles of consumers and retailers, narrowed a list of 150 retailers that could be interested in locating to Iberia Parish to a core list of 15.

Retailers that made the list were: Hobby Lobby, Target, Olive Garden, T.J. Maxx, Old Navy, Johnny Carino’s, Cracker Barrel, American Eagle Outfitters, AMF (bowling alley), Applebees, Chick-Fil-A, Finish Line, J.C. Penny, JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts and Schlotzsky’s Deli.

Tarantino, president and CEO of the Iberia Industrial Development Foundation, and Curry will begin wooing the potential retailers in late May at the International Council of Shopping Centers in Las Vegas.

In addition to the list of 15, Buxton studied retail leakage and surplus areas in the parish. Tarantino said leakage refers to “the amount of our potential buying power that leaves our community,” and surplus is “the money we capture from consumers shopping in Iberia Parish stores from surrounding areas like Franklin and Abbeville.”

He said it’s important to use Buxton’s findings not only to lure new retailers and business to the parish, but also to help existing merchants do more.

“We don’t want in any way to diminish the business that our locals enjoy,” Curry said. “We want to do everything we can with the study to encourage more business for our local business owners and assist current businesses in growing and bringing in the products that the study has indicated to be the best ones for the community.”

Buxton found there is considerable leakage, meaning Iberia Parish residents travel to other communities to shop for computer hardware, software and supplies, audio equipment, musical instruments and supplies, electronics and home furnishings.

The study also found leakage in the full service restaurant sector. In fact, Buxton said Iberia Parish has the potential of $31.3 million in sales from full service restaurants based on the consumer behavior here. Currently, full service restaurants in the parish only hit $10 million in sales per year, giving more than $20 million in sales revenue to other communities.

“I was a little surprised that they said there was so much leakage in restaurants,” Curry said. “There is definitely a need for different types of restaurants in our community.”

The study also found more than $5 million in leaked sales in the family clothing sector, which Tarantino said was most likely department stores.

“Our existing merchants can use this information to adjust their inventories to better match what consumers are buying,” Tarantino said.

Tarantino and Curry are focusing their suggestions for potential retailer location to the Spanish Towne Center development.

Tarantino said many of the retailers on the list are moving away from the indoor mall location and more toward what he called a “lifestyle center.”

“Spanish Towne Center is the closest thing we have to a lifestyle center type of development and design,” Tarantino said.

He described the concept as an outdoor shopping center but not necessarily a strip mall, “more like an indoor mall turned inside out so all the retailers were facing outward.”

Tarantino and Curry plan on presenting the Buxton findings to the community in late May or early June.

“We desperately want local retailers to be able to utilize this information,” Tarantino said. “Our intention is to make this information open and accessible to everyone that wants to look at it. We will find the most effective way to get this out to everybody, which may end up being some sort of Web-based application.”

Despite bad news on the retail front making national headlines, Tarantino said he is confident this is a good time to begin building relationships with retailers and showing them Iberia Parish is a “pocket of prosperity” they should consider.