Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, IA
06-01-06
Retail trade growing in Council Bluffs
Phil Rooney, Staff Writer
Pottawattamie County residents once watched cars head west over the Missouri River, taking retail dollars with them that didn't came back.
Things have changed.
Countries talk about their trade balance, hoping to sell more beyond their borders than they import. Cities and counties look to avoid leakage, a situation where residents look to other areas to buy what they need.
That long-time concern for Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County has not only come to an end, the trend is headed strongly in the opposite direction, according to an on-going study by Iowa State University researchers.
"It looks to me like Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County have reversed the leakage trend," said Liesl Eathington, an assistant scientist with the ISU Department of Economics.
According to the ISU research, Pottawattamie County is holding its own in retail sales while the city actually is attracting retail trade from other areas. That wasn't always the case.
Researchers refer to a community's ability to attract retail sales business as the "pull factor." That involves a comparison of average local per capita sales to a larger region, such as the state, and then factors in local income. A score of 1 or greater is good, while a number of less than 1 suggests a loss of retail sales business to other areas.
"You're selling to more than the local population," Eathington said of the Council Bluffs market.
Pottawattamie County's pull factor was .7 in 1976 when the city was at .86.
The county trend started to turn around in 1993 and reached the break-even point in fiscal year 1998. The pull factor moved to 1.04 for the county in fiscal year 2005 when Council Bluffs had a pull factor of 1.52, continuing a trend that started in 1984 and steadily has improved.
That's not true of other metro areas like Des Moines, which had a slightly higher pull factor of 1.71 during the past year, but has been on a negative trend. Sioux City's pull factor has been fairly steady, with the past year's 1.43 that city's highest since 1976 - with a low of 1.28 in 1980.
During the last five years, Council Bluffs retail sales have increased .5 percent while statewide retail sales declined 3 percent in inflation-adjusted figures, Eathington said. Last year alone, retail sales in Council Bluffs increased by $20 million to $840 million, up 2.4 percent while the state was experiencing a .3 percent decline in retail sales, according to ISU research.
Mark Norman, vice president of economic development for the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce, said retail growth pays off in new jobs and increased tax revenue through sales and property taxes.
"You want to be in a position of a surplus retail trade situation," he said. "Of course, it's being led by Mall of the Bluffs and the Manawa Power Center."
Norman said not only are shoppers from Council Bluffs and southwest Iowa staying or stopping in the city, but also the number of Nebraska license plates in the parking lots of those two retail centers demonstrate that many shoppers from eastern Omaha are coming to Council Bluffs because of the convenience.
"If some proposed retail developments come to fruition, we're going to see an even larger increase in our surplus," Norman said. The planned Metro Crossing at Interstate 29 and the South Omaha Bridge Road is one such development that has been announced.
"As we continue to develop our (retail base), we're going to get a larger percentage of the retail dollars spent," Norman said. "As a community we should be striving to see that continue to increase."
If Council Bluffs ranks behind some other Iowa metro areas in its ability to pull in retail trade, there is one factor that should be considered. While there are competitive issues in the Quad Cities, and Ames has to compete with Des Moines for retail trade, none of them have an Omaha next door, Eathington said.
"On a scale basis I'd say Council Bluffs' position is pretty unique," she said.
Eathington said the long-term trend lines for Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County appear to be slow and steady in the right direction.
"It looks very positive to me," she said.