In an effort to determine where residents of the south shore are spending their money, the City of Cudahy is conducting a retail market analysis with an eye toward recruitment of new retail businesses.
The city’s Community Development Authority has contracted with a national consulting firm, Basile Baumann Prost Cole & Associates, Inc., to conduct the analysis. The results will be used to determine what types of new businesses are a proper fit for Cudahy and stand the best chance for success, said Economic Development Director Lara Fritts.
The city is also in the process of updating its Comprehensive Plan for 2020, and has identified several key commercial retail areas. The first is Layton and Pennsylvania Avenues along the northwestern border of the city, which is looked at as supporting regional retail, Fritts said.
The southern portion of Packard Avenue is seen as serving community retail. Further north, the traditional downtown district on Packard Avenue is viewed as the “robust” commercial node, she said. South Lake Drive, which runs on the city’s eastern border along Warnimont Park, is viewed as having more potential for retail to serve those who use the park for recreation.
The preliminary comprehensive plan contains a stated goal of promoting downtown as a transit-oriented hub, while seeking to promote the historic character of downtown.
The retail market analysis will include a review of existing retailers and business traffic in Cudahy and surrounding south shore communities. It will also include interviews with business owners and survey shoppers.
“We have already undertaken a significant effort to revitalize the area,” Fritts said. “This has attracted some new private investment interest. Now we want to build upon that momentum by better understanding where the residents of Cudahy are spending their disposable income.”
Fritts, who was hired four months ago as the city’s first full-time economic development director, says the impetus for the study arose out of a long-running debate about retail business recruitment in Cudahy.
“The first thing we need to define is: What is our market?” Fritts said. “If I am a retailer, the approach has been to draw a one, three and five-mile concentric circle around the business location. So, knowing that these concentric circles really don’t work for us, we had to determine what our market is.”
Another aspect of the study will determine how much disposable income is leaking out of Cudahy in terms of shopping money, and in what market segments. The study will also try to define the type of things that people are shopping for. Local merchants will be surveyed to determine what they like, and also what they don’t like about doing business in Cudahy.
Fritts is taking preliminary results of the analysis, which started April 8, to the International Council of Shopping Centers Convention in Las Vegas to court national retailers. Another target for Cudahy is the serial entrepreneur who already has a successful store in the Milwaukee area, and may be looking to expand in a second location, Fritts said.
“We think Cudahy is just a really great market,” she said. “That’s because our market is bigger than our city – we really draw along the south shore. And, we have been active in business recruitment and retention.”
From a demographic standpoint, Cudahy has 15,000 people that work within a 2-mile radius of a major intersection. Also, 43 percent of the city’s population of 18, 315 is between 25 and 54.
“Our demographics are changing – we are not the Cudahy of 20 years ago,” Mayor Ryan McCue said. “The image that people have of Cudahy from the past has totally changed. A lot of new, younger people are moving here. People can move to Cudahy and purchase a nice home for an affordable price. We find people who used to live on the East Side, they can’t afford it, so they move here. And, I think people who come here are surprised. We are an up-and-coming community.”
Once the retail market analysis is complete later this summer, marketing to attract new retailers begins in earnest, Fritts said.
When asked what the current state of retail is in Cudahy, Fritts said, “I would call it stable – our businesses are doing well. Businesses are surviving this challenging time, and I think we can only grow upon that.”
However, prospects for a potential new large retail development on a former landfill at Layton and Pennsylvania avenues near the Lake Parkway appear dim. On April 21, the Cudahy Common Council terminated negotiations with Cobalt Partners over a disagreement in the amount of the city’s contribution to the project through creation of an environmental tax incremental financing (TIF) district.
Cudahy has implemented a new procedure for economic development to make it easier for developers to get their projects approved, McCue said. The city is also beginning the process of creating design guidelines.
“The problem we have had, since we don’t have guidelines, is that it created problems,” McCue said. “So, this kind of sets the bar at a higher level than what we have had in the past.”
