The Golden Triangle Development Link is no longer responsible for retail development in Columbus.
Link officials confirmed Thursday that after more than a decade of that being part of the economic development recruiter’s goals, the responsibility is now the city’s alone.
Gordon Flowers, chairman of the Link’s executive committee, said in a statement that the Link will continue to pursue industrial development for Columbus.
“We wish the city the best in their new endeavor to make Columbus a great place to live and do business,” Flowers said.
The move comes in the wake of the city having discussed hiring another retail consultant.
Last week, two representatives from Retail Strategies, a Birmingham, Ala.-based firm, made a presentation to city officials and discussed how they could lure more retail. A proposed three-year, $88,000 contract states the firm would conduct market studies, represent the city at real estate conferences and recruit prospective retailers to Columbus.
On Monday, a majority of councilmen voiced an interest in contracting with the firm to do marketing studies and retail recruitment.
During Tuesday’s council meeting, however, when the council discussed hiring Retail Strategies, Mayor Robert Smith suggested speaking with the Link before finalizing an agreement with the firm.
That led to a Thursday meeting between city and Link officials. By the end of the meeting, the Link had made the decision to cut retail ties with the city.
‘A grave mistake’
Afterward, Smith said the council “made a grave mistake” in failing to speak with Link officials before considering a contract with Retail Strategies.
Councilman Joseph Mickens agreed.
“Should the council have considered (consulting the Link first)? Monday morning quarterback, yeah,” he said. “We should have discussed it before we put it on the agenda. I won’t deny that, but that doesn’t make it right for them to just drop us without having a conversation with us. We never said we were going to drop them. I think the situation just got completely out of control from a lack of communication.”
Councilman Charlie Box said he was “shocked” by the Link’s decision and felt it was unfortunate, but understood why it was made and was apologetic if the council made an error in judgment.
“(The Link) had already made up their mind because a press release was typed before we got there. Our discussion didn’t really make a whole lot of difference,” Box said. “They felt like we should have come down there and talked to them about what we were going to do. In hindsight, maybe we should have, but my thinking was that this didn’t really have anything to do with them. All we were doing was hiring a firm to augment what they’re doing and to try to make it better.”
Higgins said that prior to Thursday’s meetings, the Link prepared two releases: One was ready in case the two parties agreed to remain partners in retail development. The other was the one sent out Thursday, stating that the city was now solely responsible for recruiting retail to Columbus.
During the Thursday meetings, Flowers met with the mayor, chief operations officer David Armstrong and each of the six councilmen. Link CEO Joe Max Higgins, Link executive board vice-chairman John Davis and Link vice-president for Columbus and Lowndes County Brenda Lathan were also at the meetings.
“During the exchanges, we didn’t hear anything that made us want to stay at the table,” Higgins said.
Councilmen Charlie Box, Kabir Karriem and Bill Gavin on Tuesday commended the Link for its work, but believe having an additional entity aimed at retail recruitment would increase the amount of opportunities.
The split was the Link’s decision and not the city’s, Higgins said. He added that such a partnership was not feasible in light of a lack of communication from councilmen on the possibility before discussing the matter publicly.
“We said, ‘If you think they can bring you more deals, we want you to do that,'” Higgins said. “They thought you could hire two people and have two people working for you and get double the results, and we said we don’t want to do it that way. Let’s agree to disagree. Let’s shake hands and be amicable and civil because we’re still working for you on a whole lot of other fronts.”
Within the last two years, the Link has started representing West Point and Starkville interests, in addition to Columbus.
During a 12-year stretch, the Link has been behind 113 retail developments in Columbus, according to Higgins. He referenced a retail marketplace profile that suggests the city had a retail potential, or demand, of $185,782,641 but supplied $582,780,593 in overall retail sales.
Those numbers contradict logic suggesting Columbus is an underserved community, Higgins said.
“Our sources say there’s not a substantial amount of retail leakage,” Higgins said. “Can we do better? Yes, but it’s not like it is desperate or drastic. It’s those subtleties you read. You get the undertones. ‘I just don’t know. They’re representing Starkville and West Point.’ First of all, that starts to question someone’s integrity a bit, that we can’t professionally represent all three of these communities, or that there’s a bias or a favoritism. That, in a sense, is offensive.”
The mayor speaking on Friday agreed.
“It was simple,” he said. “If you have issues or concerns with the Link, all you had to do was sit down and discuss those with them. I can understand why they were offended. I’d be offended, too. It’s not the appropriate way to do business.”
Link funding and current projects
The city has appropriated $110,000 to the Link in both this and last fiscal year’s budget. It is also engaged in tax increment financing projects with Lowndes County involving construction of new hotels on 18th Avenue North and the redevelopment of the old University Mall property into a DICK’s Sporting Goods and Michaels arts and crafts store. The Link will continue with these projects, Higgins said.
Mickens feels it is unlikely that the council will pull any funding away from the Link this year, despite the Link’s decision to step away from retail development responsibilities.
“We’re obligated to pay them,” he added. “They’re still doing work.”
Higgins also said it was the Link’s understanding that their funding will not be affected.
Smith said he believed now would not be the time to “even consider” pulling funding.
“The city has to realize our current appropriation goes to October,” he said. “They’re still working on other projects for us. If we pulled the money, they’d no longer have to hold up their end.”
The council may take up Retail Strategies’ proposed contract at its Feb. 4 meeting.
Mickens suggested the council take a step back and interview additional firms to evaluate their services before settling on Retail Strategies.
Higgins said the Link’s decision does not close the door on working with the city again in the future on retail.
“We’re a community-based organization,” he said. “If the city wants to try something different, let them try something different for a year, two years or if the contract is three years, whatever it is. If it doesn’t work out, we’re still going to be here.”
Mickens doesn’t believe the split will be permanent.
“The door is closed, but not locked,” he said. “I think it can be opened back up.”
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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