Singles and Doubles: Using Small Retail Wins to Sustain Community Momentum
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Event Details
What happens to community support when a region goes a long stretch without a major economic development win? Staff can get worn down, elected officials face pressure, and residents start to lose confidence - even when bigger projects are quietly moving forward behind the scenes. This session explores how smaller, quicker retail recruitment wins - the singles and doubles - can keep momentum and morale high while larger industrial and economic development projects work through longer timelines.
This session looks at how a steady cadence of visible retail wins builds public trust, gives elected officials something tangible to point to, and keeps communities engaged and patient through the slower, higher-stakes deals that take years to land.
Session Highlights
- How smaller retail recruitment wins create visible, tangible progress for staff, elected officials, and residents
- Balancing a long-term industrial or economic development pipeline with shorter-term retail wins
- Building a recruitment strategy that delivers a steady cadence of wins, not just one big swing
- Real examples of how retail recruitment kept communities engaged during long development timelines
Speaker: Elliott Cook is the Director of Real Estate for Retail Strategies. In this role he teaches community leaders nationwide how to effectively communicate with retailers, brokers, and developers through the Retail Academy program.
During his tenure with Retail Strategies, Elliott has worked on the retail recruitment team focusing on bringing new retail and restaurant brands to partner communities across the country. He also conducted strategic visioning workshops throughout the country to assist cities with downtown revitalization.
His past work experience also includes property management for Retail Specialists in Birmingham, Alabama, and at Vornado/Charles E. Smith Realty Trust in the Washington, D.C. area. He served as an aide to United States Representative Spencer Bachus in his legislative office on Capitol Hill.
Elliott has been a featured speaker at various national conferences, on panels, and webinars, including ICSC Vegas, ICSC Southeast, the International Economic Development Council, International Downtown Association, the Southern Economic Development Council, and at numerous state municipal leagues, for economic development councils, universities, and at tourism conferences.
Elliott earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Auburn University. He is currently the ICSC Community Advancement Chair for the Gulf South Region and sits on the board of the ICSC Southeast Conference. His other board service includes the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Alabama Chapter and REV Birmingham’s board of directors, which manages downtown Birmingham’s Business Improvement District (BID).