Kingsport Retail Market Gap Analysis

As Kingsport continues to attract new retail businesses, it begs the question: "With all of the stores in the pipeline, how much more can we sustain before we start eroding the existing retail base?"

To answer that question, Basile Baumann Prost & Associates was commissioned to conduct a "retail market gap analysis".

Although the Tri-Cities' retail markets overlap to a certain degree, Kingsport's primary market area was defined as western Sullivan County, eastern Hawkins County, and parts of Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentucky.

BBP determined there was $1.1186 billion in retail market potential in 2006 and existing Kingsport retailers were satisfying 50% of market demand.

By 2009, BBP projects that demand will rise to $1.315 billion.  After factoring in all of the stores currently in the pipeline (Target, Kohls, Lowes West, etc), BBP projected that we will still only satisfy 64% of market demand!!!

So, while we've made great strides in Kingsport, we still have many more retail opportunities!