Jeffersonville recently held a groundbreaking for a $9M retail complex, and Mayor Mike Moore pronounced it good.
“Living in Jeff my whole life, I can tell you that if you wanna go to a store or to a restaurant or a mall for the most part in the past you always had to get in the car and drive 10 or 20 miles and go to Louisville or go someplace else. Where we stand here today is about to become the biggest economic boom for retail that the city of Jeffersonville has ever seen,” Mayor Moore said.
The renovation will cost $9 million. The mayor says that's "chump change", compared to the money it will bring back to the city.
At roughly the same time, Warren Buffett was confirming the death of retail as we know it (emphasis below is ours).
Buffett isn't just sounding off about the demise of traditional retail — he has been pulling his money out of the industry as well.
Berkshire Hathaway fired a warning signal for the retail industry in February when it sold off $900 million of Walmart stock, choosing instead to invest billions in airlines.
The sale left Buffett with nearly no shares of Walmart at a time when world's largest retailer is investing billions in the battle to catch up to Amazon.
Of course, back in 2012 when Amazon announced its Jeffersonville (River Ridge) facility, visions of cool beans danced in Moore's head.
Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore says the new facility represents a turnaround for the city.
"We are extremely excited to have Amazon join our business community," Moore said. "An addition like this shows Jeffersonville is at the forefront of a national rebound."
Perhaps some day soon, Amazon will cut out the middle man and annex Jeffersonville outright. Then Moore can be given the job of sweeping the parking lot of the abandoned retail acreage made redundant by the likes of Amazon.
Well, a boy can dream.
No comments:
Post a Comment