Page 7 - Cuero, TX Downtown Plan

Section 3
Conditions and Opportunities

owntown Cuero is organized in a 20-square Dec. 2011). Anecdotal accounts suggest that through-
block grid in blocks of approximately 275 town traffic, particularly trucks servicing the booming
Dfeet by 425 feet in average size. Much of Eagle Ford Shale drilling operations, has ramped up
Downtown’s historic building stock remains intact significantly in recent years resulting in increased
and is listed on the National Register of Historic noise and road damage in the area.
Places (see figure on the next page). Downtown’s
other remarkable landmarks include its Victorian-era Market Survey
courthouse; the pair of white churches that bracket
the northern entry to Downtown on Esplanade Street; To understand the market potential of Downtown
and the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum, DeWitt Cuero, a series of geo-based economic and
County Historical Museum, Reuss Pharmaceutical “psychographic” data-sets were compiled using ESRI
Museum, and the Cuero Heritage Museum, which Business Analyst. ESRI uses a combination of census
also functions as the Chamber of Commerce building data and consumer spending pattern analysis to profile
which was formerly the City’s post office. a community’s retail market potential across various
retail sectors. Downtown Cuero’s trade area analysis
Downtown Cuero is situated near the junction of was broken-down into concentric 5-mile, 10-mile and
Highways 87 and 183 in DeWitt County where it serves 15-mile rings around the Downtown area.
as the County seat. The City is within a few hours’
drive of several large metros including: Houston, San Besides providing a picture of overall income and
Antonio, and Corpus Christi, and is a sub-regional retail spending in the community, the analysis
cross-roads between these cities and the Gulf Coast. compares Cuero’s overall retail spending potential
The City is part of a chain of communities in Texas’ to aggregate sales figures among the area’s retailers.
Coastal Plain region, which is known primarily for This comparison helps identify areas of retail surplus
cattle and turkey ranching, pecans, and increasingly (where local retail supply exceeds local spending
oil and gas mining, as part of the Eagle Ford Shale Play. potential), and retail leakage (where local spending
capacity exceeds local retail supply).
Average daily traffic counts in and through Downtown
Cuero are approximately 30,000 and 16,500 respectively These metrics can help identify an area’s potential
on Broadway and Esplanade Streets (source: TxDOT retail recruitment opportunity as well as potential
market saturation (i.e., oversupply). For instance, a

ADOPTED 03.04.13 7