Florence
looks for retail advice
By Denise Wilson
Post staff reporter
The city of Florence, long Northern Kentucky's retail center,
is considering retaining a Cincinnati retail consultant to help it maintain
and improve its shopping mix.
Council is planning to invite Stan Eichelbaum, retail analyst and president
of Cincinnati-based Marketing Developments Inc., to a future meeting to learn
more about him and his nationally recognized expertise in retail, said Florence
Mayor Diane Whalen.
"Our goal, of course, is to make sure we maintain our status as the retail
center or the retail hub of Northern Kentucky," she said.
Whalen said Eichelbaum, a former Federated Department Stores executive, could
specifically help the city, home to Florence Mall and a number of "big
box" retailers, determine where it stands now with regards to retail, what
it can do to better its position and how it can better accommodate some of its
high-end retailers.
Eichelbaum was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
Whalen said Eichelbaum offers the double benefits of national connections in
retail and being locally based. "We're very fortunate that he lives here
and works here, and we wouldn't have to pay travel costs associated with his
engagement if in fact we decide we want to" retain him, Whalen said.
Eichelbaum has worked with cities such as Pittsburgh, Miami, and San Juan, Puerto
Rico, as well as Cincinnati to help devise downtown retailing master plans.
In Cincinnati, he helped the city create zones downtown to help consolidate
different functions in a cooperative manner. For example, a new Lazarus department
store, Tiffany's, a new Brooks Brothers store and Palomino restaurant were developed
on Fountain Square West, a site that for many years was a parking lot.
In Pittsburgh, Eichelbaum helped the city determine the best use of a site on
the Monongahela River. Through marketing developments, his company helped develop
over 1 million square feet of a mixed-use development for the city.
In Miami, his company coordinated a feasibility analysis that discouraged using
Doral Circle as an entertainment and retail project. Instead, his company put
together a strategic development plan for the site, which led to the construction
of 750,000 square feet of office towers and two hotels in a restaurant- and
retail-use boulevard.
Currently, Marketing Developments is under contract with Portland, Ore., to
provide retail-planning advice in a new strategic plan for the Portland Development
Commission and the Association for Portland Progress, two development groups
in that community.
Before founding Marketing Developments in 1989, Eichelbaum served as executive
vice president of JMB/Centers Management Co., where he supervised the market
research, marketing strategies, creative services, sales analysis and other
management functions of JMB/Federated's 23 properties. Before that, he was director
of creative services for the Rouse Co., where he oversaw marketing at its 36
retail centers.
Whalen said the city began talking about how to improve its standing with mid-grade
to high-end retailers when it began the $140,000 Mall Road study in 2001, which
looked at ways to make the busy thoroughfare more pedestrian-friendly.
Florence is undertaking a proactive effort to retain and court retailers because
of competition from nearby communities. In Crescent Springs, a developer has
proposed an upscale shopping center -- Buttermilk Towne Center -- on Anderson
Road. Plans also are under way in nearby Crestview Hills to transform Crestview
Hills Mall into an open-air "lifestyle center."
Whalen said those projects definitely would impact Florence if they are built.
Publication Date: 09-08-2003