Site Selection Center
Underserved Markets: Reaching the Region’s Untapped Markets
| Keep this in mind: an independent 2006 study showed that the Tri-Cities area (Petersburg, Colonial Heights, and Hopewell) was underserved: Hopewell, poised to grow quickly from Fort Lee’s expansion, currently has a $168 million dollar gap between demand and supply, and the rapid growth around the base will only increase the consumer demand for a wide spectrum of goods and services. |
By opening your next location here in the Gateway Region, your company can operate at reasonable costs while gaining an early foothold in a consistently growing market. Are you still thinking about locating elsewhere? Opening in a similar-sized market west of Richmond will not only cost your company considerably more, but will also force you to compete in a completely saturated retail environment.
Demand for general merchandise stores—including department stores—in Hopewell and Petersburg is more than $70 million higher than the current supply. The Tri-Cities combined had $16 million gap between the area’s food and beverage demands and the area’s supply. Demand in Petersburg and Hopewell for electronics and appliances outweighed the local supply by $10 million, and demand in those cities for clothing and clothing accessories outweighed the local supply by nearly $25 million.
Representing the last retail opportunity between Richmond and the North Carolina border, consider the Gateway Region’s potential as a stopping point for travelers and commuters.
On average, more than 95,000 cars pass through Colonial Heights, Petersburg, Prince George, and Sussex daily on Interstate 95, the United States’ main artery for interstate travel and commerce. Likewise, more than 60,000 cars per day pass through Petersburg and Dinwiddie on Interstate 85, which runs from Petersburg into Durham, Greensboro, and Charlotte. Each of those cars is carrying at least one passenger; if your retail business can bring in just a fraction of those daily passengers, you can increase your yearly profits by millions of dollars.
With land for commercial development available near Interstate 95 and Interstate 85, which runs from Petersburg into central North Carolina—your company could be less than 30 minutes from nearly 500,000 of the region’s residents and have direct access to the millions of travelers that drive these roads yearly.