Mid-Atlantic Offers Hope for a Hopeless Year (2/4)
Feb 4, 2009 11:46 AM
Retail Traffic: How do you think your region will perform relative to the rest of the country during this downturn?
Maddux: Well, we’d like to imagine that our region will remain stronger than other parts of the country because of employment opportunities. The federal government is the economic engine in the region, in both the public and private [sectors], because of direct federal jobs and the indirect jobs. Any time a new administration comes into Washington, just the transition of people and jobs creates economic activity by itself. And what will encourage [further growth] is BRAC relocation. This has been talked about for several years and even with the downturn in the economy there are people being relocated to this region and there is development to accommodate the relocation of these jobs.
Goldmeier: Pretty much just up and down that 95 corridor almost down to Fredericksburg, you’ve got that impact of people moving in [because of BRAC]. And those jobs typically have a compounding effect—you are talking about people who are going to have a large enough income so it’s going to create a need for more housing, more infrastructure, more schools, etc.
Timko: We have a solid foundation—we have a strong economy, we are not growing jobs at the same rate as we were, but at the same time, we are not losing jobs. Also, parts of the market are not exceedingly overbuilt.
Retail Traffic: What kind of a mood do you expect to see at the ICSC Mid-Atlantic Idea Exchange show?
Goldmeier: Probably somber. I would definitely expect attendance to be [down]. If it wasn’t it would only be because there might be a fairly substantial number of people looking for jobs, and they might come in for networking. But in terms of the true dealmaker type of attendance it will definitely be lighter.
Timko: The Mid-Atlantic show will be much more positive than New York Deal Making. Some of it is timing, but some of it is the market—we are stronger than others.
Maddux: Clearly, the attendance at this show will be less than it has been in the past couple of years. And that will be due to the fact that there are less people engaged in this industry or the companies can’t afford to send people to these shows. There will clearly be fewer retailers and people who aren’t directly engaged in the retail industry who attended these shows in the past couple of years. But we expect all of the regular attendees to be at the Washington show. We are still fully engaged because we have to be, it’s part of our core business.
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