ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996            TAG: 9610230042
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER

PULASKI MAY HIRE HELP TO LOOK AT OUTLET PROPOSAL

Pulaski's Economic Development Department will look into the hiring of a consultant to determine whether the town might join the growing trend to downtown factory outlet malls.

The town's Economic Development Executive Committee agreed Tuesday to send out a request for proposals for firms to make the necessary study. Town economic development official have already identified two national consultants who do studies of that kind.

Outlet malls traditionally have been located along major travel highways, town Economic Development Director Barry Matherly told the town's Economic Development Board. But those malls have increasingly had to rely on entertainment to attract customers, and the trend is to put outlets into existing downtowns where entertainment such as museums and specialty shops already exists.

"One of the neat populations they like is college students," he said. In this area, that would include Virginia Tech, Radford University and the New River and Wytheville community colleges. Another target population is tourists, he said.

A downtown outlet mall would have to acquire 12 to 15 stores at a minimum to make it happen, Matherly said. What they usually do is rent stores in a single general area up to perhaps 7,000 square feet.

"It's a nice way to fill up 12 to 15 storefronts at one time," he said, although he could not tell at this point whether the town of Pulaski could support such a venture. That is what a consultant would determine, probably sometime next year.

The Economic Development Department now has Virginia Tech students working through Tech's Economic Development Assistance Center providing a free market analysis for downtown Pulaski. They surveyed 150 business and 80 customers last week, Matherly said, "and that's pretty good."

"We'll be having some focus groups coming up in the next couple weeks," he said. "Once you get the market surveys done, it shows the opportunities you have downtown. So it'll be pretty nice information to have."

The department secured the services of two interns from Radford University to get Pulaski businesses put on a free state business Internet home page.

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