Landauer joined the Carroll Chamber of Commerce in 2014, and prior to that, she served as the Boone County Development Agency Executive Director. She says it was a difficult decision to make, but the move to a larger region was the next logical step in her career.
Landauer’s influence on Carroll’s economic environment is overwhelmingly positive. From helping businesses in the area navigate the challenges of a global pandemic to facilitating a joint effort between the CADC and City of Carroll to contract with the Retail Coach to bring new businesses to town as well as support existing ones, she and her staff are always looking for ways to better the community. She says she will be leaving behind a top-notch team to carry on the Chamber and CADC’s mission.
There are 32 Carroll businesses working with the Retail Coach, who is collecting customer data and creating a demographic profile of the community and its primary retail trade area along with a demand outlook for the next five years. One of these businesses, Drees Co., has used the results to initiate an inventory expansion into a new product. “As a local business owner, the Retail Coach data has given us the opportunity to sell GE Café appliances,” says Howie Drees. “GE Café appliances are higher end appliances that we have been trying for months to persuade our supplier to allow us to sell. It wasn’t until I sent them the data that showed our 30,000 plus (population) market area and the estimated two percent growth in appliance sales that they immediately approved us.” This will allow Drees Co. to expand retail space into the Drees rental on the corner of U.S. Highway 30 and Carroll Street. “The data we were given from the Retail Coach study reaffirms the potential of
Farmer says they will be creating a secondary, broader retail area and will review and adjust both accordingly. He also explained retail fusion, looking at current retailers and then others who traditionally partner with them in other communities to showcase the opportunities in this market. They are presenting the benefits of Carroll to as many as 30 to 40 businesses. What they would consider successful recruitment would be to capture one of those in the first year of their three-year initiative, but it is typical to get at least one by the second year and they have historically seen six to seven interested parties at any one point in time. The entire presentation from The Retail Coach can be found below. There is a special public presentation for the other partnered initiative, the Corridor of Commerce, tonight (Wednesday) which will be done virtually beginning at 7 p.m. The public is asked to weigh in with questions and comments following the presentation at 7:30 p.m. Details on t
The Carroll City Council will be convening for a special Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) budget workshop at 5:15 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18. This is the first of four scheduled workshops and will focus in on General Obligation (GO) bonding options for street improvements and the proposed updates and expansion at the Carroll Rec Center as well as the Police Department budget for the coming year. Council members will also be reviewing requests for funding support from outside agencies, currently at more than $168,600. This includes requests from the Region XII taxi program, the Carroll Area Child Care Center and preschool, Community of Concern Food Pantry, New Opportunities, the Carroll Area Development Corporation (CADC) and more. There is also a breakdown of the general fund operating budget of $226,000 from the Carroll Airport Commission along with their capital requests. Although the discussion on these requests will take place, there will be no presentations. The review will come from letters s
As the City of Carroll, the Carroll Chamber of Commerce and the Carroll Area Development Corporation (CADC) continue work on the Corridor of Commerce project, they are also reaching out to bring residents of the community into the process. In a newly released video, city and business leaders discuss the reasoning behind the project and the timing. President of Commercial Savings Bank, Ryan Milligan, says the pandemic is new, but other economic aspects needing everyone’s attention are not.
The video was produced in partnership with RDG Planning and Design, who is working with the city on the Corridor of Commerce plan, and Fusebox Marketing of Carroll. City Manager, Mike Pogge-Weaver, says the video has been distributed on their various social media outlets and on the website carrollforward.com. The site was opened late last year, asking residents to fill out a survey on their vision for the future of their community. Pogge-Weaver says they would like to see a lot more of those surv