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ENTREPRENEURSHIP GROUP TO WORK ON RETAIL OPPORTUNITIES

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 11:59 PM CDT

Members of the Pine Bluff Entrepreneurship Collaborative are preparing to take recommendations on how to create more retail opportunities and run with them.

Steven Ferren, head of the Pine Bluff Entrepreneurship Collaborative’s retail task force, briefs members on a report analyzing local retail opportunities Tuesday at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center. Pine Bluff Commercial/Amy Riggin

The group met at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center Tuesday to hear a briefing on the report, conducted by Dr. Marsha Guffey of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Institute for Economic Advancement’s Center for Economic Development Education.

Steven Ferren, head of PBEC’s retail analysis task force, summarized Guffey’s findings and asked that members take the lead in following the recommendations.

“If you’ve got a heart for this we need your help,” Ferren said. “That’s the next step, to take the 12 recommendations and champion each one of those.”

In a later telephone interview, Guffey said she toured the city’s retail centers for about an hour and a half one day last month.

“I saw the different areas of town and then I looked at the retail analysis that had been done for this group previously and tried to highlight some of the items that I think they need to focus on as they do retail attraction,” she said, referring to a November report prepared by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

She said one of the key recommendations was to focus on a city’s demographics and “try to market retailers to serve those people.”

Another suggestion Guffey made was to try and attract more upscale retail, like niche shops. She also said the city needs to work on its image.

“Pine Bluff has a perception problem,” Ferren said.

Joy Blankenship, executive director of Pine Bluff Downtown Development Inc., also toured with Guffey and said PBEC members are eager to work on her recommendations and to invite her back for more input.

But she was also quick to point out that Pine Bluff’s retail “doesn’t look so bad.”

“We were all surprised at how many [retail centers] we had that were doing fine and flourishing,” Blankenship said.

The tour consisted of the South Olive Street, East Harding Avenue, downtown, Watson Chapel and 28th Avenue areas.

“There are some gaps, naturally, for big box [retailers] but as far as smaller retail we were kind of excited,” Blankenship said.

Other suggestions included posting Pine Bluff’s retail analysis online so that merchants have easy access to information about the city, working with The Pines mall owner General Growth Properties to recruit new businesses there and working to bring restaurants that offer local cuisine downtown to create a regional draw.

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