Leadership New Braunfels paper

Tomorrow I graduate from the Leadership Program of the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce. I've spent one day a month for the past 9 months or so learning about the city of New Braunfels and meeting city and county officials and local businessmen. Some of the neat things we've taken part in are: taking a helicopter tour of the city with Silver State Helicopters (before bankruptcy), getting a tour of the New Braunfels Smokehouse facility, the Herald-Zeitung printing building and the city and county offices. Along with that, I've had the chance to get to know a bunch of neat people from different businesses and organizations in town. It's been a neat and valuable way to spend one day a month.

The last requirement of the class is to prepare and present a group research paper on one of several assigned topics. The other members of my group consisted of Janet Mack (Eden Home), James Long (First State Bank), and Jean Marie Rich (T Bar M), and our topic was "Retail Recruitment - How Are We Doing?" Enjoy:

Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce
Leadership New Braunfels, Class of 2008
Research Paper

Retail Recruitment in Greater New Braunfels

“Is It Safe to Send Your Wife to New Braunfels in the Rain?”

Presented by: Phil Brown, James Long, Janet Mack, Jean Marie Rich

Is it safe to send your wife to New Braunfels in the rain? Definitely.

Should it be? We don’t think so.

Don’t misunderstand though – we’re not suggesting that we invite more criminals to town so that your wife’s not safe here.

Picture this scenario: Your wife and some girlfriends suggest a trip to New Braunfels to spend some time on one of our beautiful rivers in a tube (with an appropriate sized cooler, of course).

Conclusion: this is a pretty safe excursion, one you can wholeheartedly support! Why? Because once they’ve bought their drinks, put their swimsuits on and paid to get on the river, your bank account is safe and secure!

But what if it rains?

Where would a group of women go to entertain themselves on a rainy day? You guessed it – shopping! But are there enough retail outlets in New Braunfels to satisfy your wife’s desire to shop? You be the judge:

A recent economic study submitted to the New Braunfels City Council concluded that “in Comal county we have fewer people employed in retail stores as a percentage of total jobs than Bexar, Hays, Gillespie and Kerr counties, and less than the state average.1” Additionally, there are “less than half as many jobs in clothing stores in Comal county than the state average.2”

As long as your wife and her friends stay here – you’re in the clear. That’s good news for you and your nest egg, but it’s bad news for the economic health of our community.

The Need for More Retail – Pursuing Balance

Recruiting new retailers to New Braunfels is going to enhance our ability to grow. This has to be a priority for us! City Councilman Pat Wiggins, who also owns one of the largest retail centers in New Braunfels states, “Additional retail will positively affect New Braunfels economically by adding tax revenue and trickle down to other parts of the economy.3”

Mr. Wiggins also believes that “retail is 100% driven by housing.4” The type of housing built will determine the type of retail that can be sustained. Rusty Brockman, Director of Economic Development for the Chamber of Commerce agrees, and states that “our retail outlets are significantly behind our current population. Even with the new Creekside development, we’re not up to par.5”

The Buxton Report states, “Retail is now an essential part of a community’s economic health and vitality. As America’s economy has grown, demand for more retail and dining choices have grown to enhance the quality of our lives.6” It doesn’t make sense that we’re allowing our growing population (and their sales tax dollars) drive 10 miles north to San Marcos or 15 miles south to San Antonio to do their shopping! This is especially true as we watch fuel prices skyrocket locally and across the nation!

In order for our economic health to be stable for years to come, it’s important for us to diversify our focus from simply relying on tourism. We recognize from recent experience that a summer with above normal rainfall, or a new city ordinance can negatively affect the health of our community’s economy. Are we really comfortable in a situation where the weather or the city council have that much impact on our economic health? Something needs to change!

It’s already been stated that our employment numbers in the area of retail are significantly below the state average. By recruiting new retailers to New Braunfels, we can expect our unemployment rate to decrease. As additional jobs are created for our residents, we anticipate that they will not only earn their salary here, but they will spend it here, too!

The situation is improving – the new Creekside development is coming to the north side of the city, and the addition of the Lowe’s south of town definitely helps. But even with these new additions, we are clearly still lacking in the kind of retail outlets that our population uses regularly. You can literally watch those sales tax dollars drive right out of the city.

The bottom line is this: there is so much potential here! We must be dedicated to diversifying our economy so that we’re not solely relying on the rivers and Wurstfest to make our fiscal year, and it only makes sense to take advantage of our exploding population and give these new residents the outlets to get what they need and want, and keeping their tax dollars here in New Braunfels and Comal county.

Protecting Our Heritage

Anyone who’s spent time in New Braunfels understands that we are a community that is extremely connected to two things: our historic German heritage and the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers. And because these are extremely valuable and marketable aspects of life here, our economic health greatly benefits from the tourism industry.

The economic report presented to the City Council also reported “that tourism generates $255 million in Comal county in 2006.7” That’s a lot of money – but that’s not all! In the past 5 years, the tourism industry has created more than 5,000 new jobs in New Braunfels.8 That’s a huge boost to our economy, and explains why the population in greater New Braunfels has grown from 36,494 in 2000 to and estimated 51,066 in 2007.9

Some claim that those statistics are an indicator that we need more retail outlets to keep up with our growing population. The problem with that is that we lose our heritage and the small town feel that is one of the most attractive parts of life in New Braunfels. If our population continues to grow at the rate we have since 2000, 10 years from now our city will be unrecognizable.

Mr. Eugene Mornhinweg, a lifelong New Braunfels resident can remember a time when all of the shops were named for the family who operated them (such as Henne Hardware),and only sold one thing (drug stores sold drugs, clothing stores sold clothing, etc.) and every store was within “shouting distance” from each other and from the plaza.10

April Carley, a 4th generation citizen of New Braunfels remembers that when she was single and in college, she loved the “growing” aspect of life in New Braunfels – there was always something fun and exciting happening. Now that she’s married and has a family, she misses the small town atmosphere she grew up in: small schools, knowing her child’s teacher, recognizing people at the store and seeing all of her neighbors at the community festivals and events. Now, our community events are filled with people who drive in from an hour or more away, and it’s difficult to locate anyone you know! Her concern is that our German heritage is in the newspapers a few days a year, but is not a big part of life in New Braunfels on a day to day basis. The older generations remember our German heritage, but that concern for tradition is being lost with the younger generations.11 If we continue on this same path, how long will it be until our historic German heritage is completely gone?

We spend so much time talking about recruiting new businesses to town, but what are we doing to keep the retailers we already have? Before the losses of Owens-Corning and Silver State Helicopters, Rusty Brockman estimated that “since 2001, New Braunfels has lost businesses that employed 2,500 and gained business that employ 4,000.12” So, because of these losses, we have added only about 200 jobs per year over the past 7 years.

Another question we have to ask about recruiting new retailers here is if New Braunfels has the infrastructure in place to support these new businesses and more population growth. Will our police department, school districts, hospitals, roads and water supply support this kind of growth? These are serious issues that have to be addressed before these new retailers are brought to town.

Obviously, we don’t live in the 1920’s anymore. We’re in the era of the superstore and buying in bulk at Costco or Sam’s Club. Instead of seeing the charm of the local, family store, today’s consumers want the instant gratification of walking into a store and being able to buy a new pair of jeans, the latest movie on DVD, a gallon of milk and a new toothbrush, all while getting their oil changed and new tires. Does anyone really believe that’s a good thing?

You Make the Call

The statistics and arguments are in, and they are up for interpretation. How are we doing in the area of Retail Recruitment? Should we be recruiting new retailers and pursuing growth and balance economically, or should we fiercely defend and protect our valuable German heritage?

Footnotes
1 “Revenue from day tubers won’t stretch far,” New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, 18 December, 2007
2 Ibid.
3 Mr. Pat Wiggins, interviewed by James Long, New Braunfels, TX, 30 April, 2008
4 Ibid.
5 Mr Rusty Brockman, interviewed by Jean Marie Rich, New Braunfels, TX, 18 March, 2008
6 Buxton Report Official Website, http://www.buxtonco.com
7 “Revenue from day tubers won’t stretch far,” New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, 18 December, 2007
8 Ibid.
9 New Braunfels, TX – Official Website – Demographics, http://www.ci.new-braunfels.tx.us/index.asp?NID=579 (April 2008)
10 Mr. Eugene Mornhinweg, interviewed by Janet Mack, Eden Care Center, New Braunfels, TX, 18 March, 2008
11 Mrs. April Carley, interviewed by Jean Marie Rich, New Braunfels, TX, 18 March, 2008
12 Mr Rusty Brockman, interviewed by Jean Marie Rich, New Braunfels, TX, 18 March, 2008

Until next time - RevPhil