Clarksville, TN – As the interview continued, David “Buck” Dellinger, President/CEO of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Economic Development Council, used IKEA as a hypothetical. “Say they announce they want to build three stores in the U.S. next year,” Dellinger said. “Someone has to go out and make a deal with them. There might be 100 Market-Approved communities, now these places have to compete.
“They have questions; how will my access be, will you build this or that for me, how is the power coming in, what about the landscaping, who will put in the pavement. They’re going to look at the cost of building, and they are looking for the community to help defray part of that cost.”
Dellinger explains why it’s a big deal to recruit regional retail. “So, that means you’re not just serving your own community. Now you’re attracting people from other communities to come here and shop. Every time another Publix or Kroger comes in, they are actually cannibalizing the current grocery stores. They’re not building additional sales in the market. E.g., now I drive five minutes to the store instead of fifteen. With an IKEA the sales tax revenues are a big deal. The local sales tax option means 2-1/2% of that money stays in the community. Most of that goes to the school system. It helps fund the growth of our schools, and that’s a big deal. So, increasing tax revenue with regional sales tax is something we seek to do.”
Dellinger shared the statistics that show tourism puts Montgomery County at number 9 out of 95 counties in the state of Tennessee. “But, we are the first county in the lineup that doesn’t have a true destination. The counties around Nashville are ahead of us, and in Knoxville, you have Sevier and Blount, then Chattanooga and Memphis with Hamilton and Shelby counties. So, that’s pretty good.”
Dellinger praised our sports marketing team. “They are fantastic. We’re going to have upwards of 60 sports marketing events in our community, and these are things that most people don’t see. You might laugh but the corn-hole regional championships were here last April, and we have hockey. Two weeks ago we had the Junior College women’s volleyball championships that brought in the top 16 teams from 10 different states. All the teams, all the families, were here from Tuesday to Saturday. That’s a lot of revenue. For every dollar spent in a hotel, we get $1.50 spent on retail, eating out and other sundries while they are here.”
Dellinger discussed Tax Incremental Finance (TIF) districts. “We have three of them that are moving the needle. All of the construction around this building, the 55,000 sf. retail upgrade at the hotel, the Vulcan property, and the other multi-family development that’s coming up, all that is related to TIF districts.
“We’re taking land that is difficult to develop or land that needs a first-mover, – someone to come build a Class A multi-family building with 100 – 200 units, when everyone else is going to say what are the comps. That first-mover is the one who takes all the risks for projects on difficult land. We are in a flood zone area , and it’s very dense downtown, that makes it more expensive to build.
“On the Vulcan property, which was formerly industrial, it has its own challenges. All the development downtown is being spurred by being in these TIF districts. The phrase we use is ‘rooftops lead retail.’ Retail works, but it becomes sustainable when you have people living in a downtown area who are visiting the retail on a daily rather than an episodic basis.”
Dellinger talked about plans to bring 1,000 rooftops into our downtown corridor, with grocery, retail, and boutiques. “All that works, but not to its fullest potential, until you have a living daily population that can make it sustainable.
“We have a 160-unit project, Vulcan will be 320. There are others we can’t talk about. Go to Dog Hill and cross Crossland Avenue, there are some nice little 2-story town-homes being built. They have great views, and we are connecting them with the Greenway. People are walking, and those rooftops are close enough to downtown for folks to use the restaurants and shopping that is being planned. The new city garage is gorgeous, and it has the bridge to Franklin Street, and that’s huge. That bridge and these 500 spaces are going to make that all so much more convenient.”
Dellinger says industrial park, downtown development, and tourism development are the three big drivers right now. The Economic Development Council includes the Tourism Department, the Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Development Board and the Industrial Development team.
“The board is appointed,” Dellinger said. “It is comprised of folks from the city and county who approve what we do. Josh Ward and his team are the staff in the EDC who are doing the work.
“F&M Bank Arena put us on the map in a lot of ways. We think it’s a key performance indicator, how many people are visiting the arena daily, and those numbers are looking great. Hockey, APSU basketball, concerts, the rodeo, etc. We can track where those people are coming from, what they’re spending, etc. We’re still figuring out all that data. We are trying to figure out where we are, where we should be, and how to continue that growth.”
Dellinger says F&M Bank Arena is another entity that is moving the needle in a big way. “As we go through the year we’ll have more data. It’s helping out restaurants. When APSU basketball moved into the arena, the Dunn Center became available. That does two things, it helps APSU with exposure recruitment and income, and it helps our hotel/motel economy.
“We have an advocate that works with us now. We’re working with the city and county on whatever interest there is in expanding our transportation. Most of our overused roads are state roads, so, we’re at their mercy, and on their timeline. Until we can get Trenton Rd. widened, expand the interstate, and expand Rossview Rd. on the East side – until those are completed we will continue to be constrained.”
Dellinger admits that his foot is on the brake a little. “That’s for a couple of reasons. Our workforce capacity needs to stay in line with the jobs we are creating. We can’t set these companies up for failure, and transportation is bottle-necked. What isn’t bottle-necked is our utilities. We know our water, power and sanitary systems will have to grow in the next ten years, but in general our utilities are good.”
The good news is the state is aware of our transportation network constraints. Mile marker 12 to the state line is in TDOT’s 10-year plan to be expanded, along with Trenton Road. “So, our Representatives are very important right now, including Congressman Mark Green and Senators Blackburn and Hagerty. I was recently in D.C. talking about what we need, and these folks are working on it.
“These are things the city and county can’t handle by themselves, even though they are committing as many dollars as they can to do our part and make these projects more attractive to the state. The other thing is housing. A new housing study just came out. We need to create I think 1,500 houses over the next five years.
“Jeff Tyndall and the Regional Planning Commission are working with us to make sure we have enough lots and enough multi-family developments planned to support the growth. We are in-sync to stay on pace with housing.
“Low-income housing tax credit projects have been recruited. One new project will open in July of this year. It’s housing that’s available through federal grants and other developers at a less-than-market rental rate, for those making less than 60% of AMI. These are good things for the community. We have more than a dozen of these across the county, and we continue to compete for those.”
Before coming to this position, Dellinger was Chief of staff with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell. Colonel Dellinger served as Fort Campbell’s Garrison Commander for three years, during which time he worked with Mayors Bowers, Durrett, and McMillan, as well as other local leadership.
“We are an exurb of Nashville. We have our own MSA (Market Support Area). We are experiencing a lot of people moving from Rutherford County and Nashville. Every month I talk to Mark Holleman and Lawson Mabry who tell me an inventory of 1,500 on the real estate market is a good place to be from a supply and demand perspective.
“We’ve also had a lot of multi-family approved, and all that infill that is taking place. The Mayors are doing a good job of managing all this. Growth brings more revenue, and more commercial revenue which is assessed at a rate of 40% vs residential’s 25%. More commercial means you outpace the cost to the community. I’m extremely positive about Clarksville’s future.”
