By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
A team of Dallas-area developers visited Jacksonville on Monday and came away impressed, but the trip didn’t lock in any new business, Mayor Gary Fletcher said.
A potential golf-course buyer was supposed to be part of the group, but didn’t make the trip.
“These people paid their own way here, asked questions, toured the city and left knowing that what we were telling them and everyone at the last economic conference we attended about Jacksonville was right on the money,” the mayor said.
“I’m really excited about our potential,” he added.
The group that visited the city builds shopping centers and brings in major and minor anchors and they also represent some national retail and restaurant chains. “They are the site locators,” said the mayor. “They are the ones that put the deals together.”
The mayor said the group was interested in the acreage north of the city that Jacksonville tried to annex by vote and lost. The city is working to bring in a large portion of that area through voluntary petition. “The group also asked about a number of pre-existing buildings,” Fletcher said.
Along with the group was the city’s economic development consultant, Rickey Hayes, but the mayor spent most of his time with the developers. “It was a good opportunity to hear from them how to better market our city,” the mayor said.
He said three areas that he is working on that will help with economic development are annexation of the northern area, the $20-to-$25-million Coffelt overpass and existing water and sewer lines to the north.
In his first meeting Friday morning with the newly established umbrella group of the council, chamber and advertising and promotion commission, Hayes told them that all groups need to push for the overpass.
He told the chamber representatives they need to get Cabot onboard too as it would also help them.
He also told the umbrella group that everyone needs to be on the same page, working together in the city’s efforts to get control of the land needed for the state fair. There will be a public hearing in mid-February to listen to residents and to allow the mayor and other city officials to explain how they plan to obtain the land.
The mayor said the developers spent their first few hours in city hall before piling into a parks and recreation van and touring the city. The group then talked to the Rotary Club about the current state of economic development.
