Could more national retailers come to Aiken? There are nine national retailers and one regional retailer interested in Aiken, a consultant told the Aiken City Council on Monday evening.
Matt Jaeger of Retail Strategies updated the city council on recruitment efforts during a worksession held before the city council meeting.
The city hired Retail Strategies in 2022 to help recruit national retailers to the city, City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh said in information provided to the council ahead of the worksession.
Retail Strategies is an Alabama-based company working with communities across the country to recruit retailers.
Information Retail Strategies provided ahead of the meeting describes 10 recruitment prospects including a "national pet supply retailer," two "national grocers," a "national smoothie quick service restaurant," a "national smoothie brand," a "national chicken quick service restaurant," a "regional convenience store," a "national sandwich restaurant," a "national breakfast restaurant" and a "national donut quick-service restaurant."
Jaeger described a quick-service restaurant as "anything with a drive-thru."
Additional information on the retailers was redacted.
"We do keep that information confidential," Jaeger told the council. "If we let slip anything specific about retail prospects and news gets out that Retailer XYZ is looking for 8-10 acres for a development site along Whiskey Road, all of the sudden the price per acre has gone up significantly. So we want to protect some of the information that we have."
Jaeger provided unredacted information to the city council during the worksession. He also offered to discuss privately any of the potential retailers with individual city council members.
Pet supply retailer
When Retail Strategies was hired, the national pet supply retailer immediately came up on the Retail Strategies radar as a "great cultural fit" for Aiken, Jaeger said.
He said the retailer was focused on a particular shopping center with a "high-end grocer" because the grocer is a complimentary use.
But, within the last six months, the pet supplier retailer has entered discussions with developer of the Lowes Foods shopping center because they feel Lowes Foods is enough of a complimentary use, Jaeger said.
Chicken and breakfast restaurants
The corporate team at the national chicken restaurant has approved Aiken as a market and there is a franchisee looking to develop in the market, Jaeger said. Retail Strategies is helping find a site, Jaeger added.
The national breakfast restaurant has searched for a Whiskey Road site for five years, Jaeger said.
"We think they're a perfect fit for the mall," Jaeger said. "We're looking at turning their heads toward that."
Aiken Towne Park
The publicly available information also mentions two projects: Aiken Towne Park (formerly known as the Aiken Mall) and an "Aiken development project."
Two national retailers, Chicken Salad Chick and Tropical Smoothie Café, have been confirmed for sites at Aiken Towne Park.
There have been a lot of headwinds with the Aiken Towne Park project, Jaeger said.
First, developers across the country are looking for ways to make malls successful in the current climate, he continued.
"The project that Southeastern [the mall redeveloper] has undertaken that is going to be a long time to complete is going to be a fantastic addition," Jaeger said. "The retail component of that is going to bring a lot of retail eyes."
Second, another headwind is that retailers don't see the Aiken Towne Park as being right on Whiskey Road, Jaeger said.
"Seeing retailers put signs on a building is almost like a we're open sign for additional retailers," he said.
