Lake Ozark wants to attract more business to the city, and the board of aldermen are signing off on an agreement with a company that does that.
“NextSite is a company that specializes in commercial recruitment and data analytics. Basically they take the information collected through cell phone towers, about who’s driving through our community…where they are going and what they are doing…and they use that to create a market profile” says Lake Ozark Community Development Director Harrison Fry.
He tells KRMS News the agreement is coming through the Lake of the Ozarks Economic Development Council and the cost has been reduced for each city, but it was reduced thanks to Ameren Missouri’s involvement “originally the cost to bring them down here was astronomical, but Ameren was able to bring that down to $30,000 lake wide…and with the $10,000 agreement from LORDEC, that brought the cost down to only $2,850 per city.
Other cities in the Lake Area are also coming on board with the plan to bring more businesses to Lake of the Ozarks, including Osage Beach, Camdenton, Eldon and Versailles “Sunrise Beach and Laurie over on the west side, they’re continuing to review the proposal…there is a lot of interest over there.”
Sunrise Beach and Laurie are reviewing the NextSite opportunity and we’ll pass along the latest details when they arise on News / Talk KRMS.
****Additional Info:
For Immediate Release
The City of Lake Ozark has endorsed a plan that could help the community market itself to potential new businesses and industries.
The board of aldermen recently signed off on an agreement with NextSite through the Lake of the Ozarks Regional Economic Development Council (LOREDC) to provide analytical data and business recruitment. NextSite is a commercial development advisory firm specializing in identifying and connecting opportunities to developers, tenant reps and end-users to affect positive change in communities across the U.S.
LOREDC and Ameren Missouri have been working for several months to secure an agreement with NextSite so communities in the lake area – including Lake Ozark – can have access to data and services that could help in business recruitment. Now, the various lake communities are being asked to support the project with financial support of $2,850 each.
If the NextSite marketing program is the direct cause of a project for any of the cities, the cities will provide a Success Fee that would be determined as part of the specific agreement with the city.
Total cost of the NextSite services is $30,000 a year for three years, and LOREDC has agreed to pay the first $10,000 each year.
The cities of Lake Ozark, Osage Beach, Camdenton, Eldon, Laurie, Sunrise Beach and Versailles are being asked to participate over the next three years.
Assistant City Administrator Harrison Fry explained that NextSite gathers shopping data based on cell tower use, by mapping customer shopping habits and other types of customer information to develop recruiting plans.
Alderman Dennis Klautzer said he sees NextStep as a headhunter company for businesses.
“This is getting more and more common in the business world, finding businesses for communities,” he noted.
Benefits
- At least one on-site meeting with a NextSite staff member to discuss the city’s goals and available development sites and available buildings suitable for commercial, office or institutional tenants.
- Access to the full LOREDC study data and each city’s data.
- The opportunity to have special business segment, district or site studies conducted by NextSite.
- The city’s properties and sites will be included in NextSite’s full national marketing program including the trade show schedule and targeted marketing programs aimed at suitable commercial, office and institutional users.
- The city and LOREDC will receive status reports from NextSite on a regular basis recapping the marketing activity that is included on the city’s sites.
Once NextSite completes the market analysis phase, identifies realistic opportunity targets and creates the marketing overview for Lake of the Ozarks market, it begins the proactive recruitment of developers, tenant reps and retailers. Using its extensive contact database and relationships throughout the commercial real estate and retail industry, NextSite connects the opportunities to decision makers with the goal of generating interest that results in market drives from these real estate professionals.
According to NextSite, the company has connected and supported more than 20 million square feet of commercial development projects resulting in more than $4.1 billion in capital investment.
The cost
NextSite will provide research, marketing and recruitment services for participating communities in the lake area. A development that is considered procured by NextSite when the retailer/restaurant opens for business at which time fees are due from the city to NextSite.
The fee structure is as follows:
- Restaurants — $4,500 per location
- Single or multi-tenant development of less than 10,000 square feet — $7,500 per development
- Multi-tenant development or single tenant retailer between 10,001—and 50,000 square feet — $15,000.
- Multi-tenant development or single tenant retailer between 50,001 and 100,000 square feet — $20,000 per development.
Development or single tenant retailer of 100,000 square feet — $30,000 per location.
Multi-family, single-family, townhomes, senior housing development, hotel, movie theater or hospital — $25,000 per location if the developer is introduced to the market by NextSite.
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