Marketing experts know that how you sell can be just as important as what you sell.
Cobb County is putting the marketing mantra to work and redoubling its efforts to promote commercial properties inside its boundaries and ultimately improve its tax rolls. The plan is for the properties—all in existing commercial corridors and that have been left vacant, underutilized or abandoned—to be inventoried and available on an online searchable website, and marketed to potential developers.
The redevelopment inventory is not new in Cobb, but the inventory has been dormant for about 10 years. Since then, the country — and the county — have undergone a monumental economic recession that has left development floundering.
To jumpstart the work, Cobb has completed an eight-month inventory of 47 commercial sites for potential redevelopment. That inventory was scaled down to the 28 sites in areas where the county already offers some type of tax credit, rehabilitation credit or enterprise and opportunity zone incentives for development.
“Given the current economy and business climate in the area, it’s imperative to be on top of the changing conditions in our community,” said Dana Johnson, manager of Cobb’s planning division which is heading up the inventory work.
Like most counties, Cobb has been hurt by the downturn. This year the county’s tax digest fell about five percent to $29.7 billion. In 2010, the digest dropped almost 7 percent from the 2009 level. Officials use the tax digest — made up primarily of the value of houses and commercial buildings — to estimate revenue and set budgets.
“The assessments on a flourishing complex are higher and obviously there is a financial advantage, to the county,” Johnson said, “but this is supporting overall community growth.”
When compiling the inventory, county planners found that not only were sites developed decades ago affected, but also some developed just two and three years ago. In some cases the properties were abandoned when commercial lending dried up and developers, unable to secure financing, couldn’t finish building. Other sites include large developments in older areas, in areas like the Canton Road corridor and along South Cobb and Six Flags Drives, that have long been plagued by under use. Of the 28 sites remiaining on the list, 13 are on Canton Road.\
“The [online inventory] is an easy informative way to let businesses know what we have to offer,” said Commissioner Bob Ott. “You want to have a robust system that shows what you have to offer and it has to be real easy to read and understand.”
Updating marketing strategies and putting more information online has become a necessity for many communities in the changing economy.
“In 2007 and 2008 there was more money to spend and more interest in developing. We were so busy meeting with developers that the marketing piece was neglected,” said Elizee Michel, executive director of the Westgate Community Redevelopment Agency in West Palm Beach, Fl. The county-funded agency is one of several Cobb looked to as examples in its redevelopment work. Westgate updated its online commercial inventory last year and updates it each quarter. “We now have to devote more time to marketing, and planning and making harder pitches for the area.”
Cobb is refining a draft of a new website of commercial properties and hopes to begin soon working on a marketing strategy to inform interested developers about the opportunities.
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