Small towns find that seniors can help their economies grow

12:31 PM CDT on Saturday, June 11,2005

By BOB MOOS / The Dallas Morning News

Gene Warren has a surefire plan for pumping up small-town economies – persuade affluent older adults to retire there.

Once seen as community burdens, seniors are now regarded as economic drivers.

Mr. Warren's consulting firm has done economic impact studies turning conventional wisdom on its head by showing that older adults generally put far more into communities' coffers than they take out.

"Resourceful retirees have higher incomes and spend more than younger residents," said Mr. Warren, president of Thomas, Warren and Associates of Phoenix. "One affluent couple has the same impact as three factory jobs."

The message is resonating with economic development officials. About a dozen states have launched aggressive marketing campaigns to attract "comfortable" older adults who want to relocate when they retire.

Texas will join the competition for prospective retirees early next year, following the Legislature's recent approval of a state marketing effort aimed at raising communities' profiles as desirable retirement destinations.

Though the Valley has long been a winter haven for snow-weary retirees from up North, state officials say they want other areas of Texas to become year-round spots for the silver-haired set.

"Retirees are the new clean-growth industry in America," said Charles F. Longino Jr., an expert on retirement migration.

With 77 million boomers approaching retirement, states are finding the potential economic benefits of recruiting seniors irresistible. Americans 50 and older control about 70 percent of the nation's wealth.

Development officials regard Mississippi's "Hometown Retirement" program as the national model, attracting 1,500 retirees and $194 million to the state each year, according to a Mississippi State University study.

"Mississippi isn't most people's first thought when they consider retirement destinations, so we've had to work at it," said Diana O'Toole, the program's director.

The state has certified 19 towns as attractive places to retire. Each had to apply for the designation by touting such attributes as affordable housing, quality health care, cultural opportunities and low crime.

The certified towns, such as Natchez and Oxford, become part of the program's national marketing campaign, which includes magazine ads, Web site promotions and booths at trade shows.

"We're trying to reach the 50-plus couples who are several years from retiring but beginning to think about where they'd like to settle down when they do," Ms. O'Toole explained.

Prospects who respond to the ads and Web site often get phone calls from the towns' own retirees.

"The whole point is to encourage them to come see us," she said.

The people who do visit get shown the town's sights by someone who's already retired to Mississippi.

"We try to win them over by taking them on a tour of our homes, our shopping areas and anything else they care to see," said Yvette Mangum, director of Vicksburg's retirement program.

Ms. Mangum said visitors ask about everything from medical specialists to tax exemptions.

Some Vicksburg residents initially cringed at the prospect of attracting older adults, fearing they'd overburden the local health care system or vote down school improvement projects, she said.

But even the most skeptical residents have since admitted they were wrong.

"The retirees have made great next-door neighbors," Ms. Mangum said. "They've become some of the town's most avid volunteers and supporters."

One of Vicksburg's biggest boosters is former Dallas resident Bettye Whitney, 82, who moved to the historical city when she and her husband retired more than 10 years ago.

"We were overtaken by the charm of this place," she said. "I don't miss Dallas – a traffic jam here is two cars waiting for a stoplight to change."

The couple bought a 19th-century mansion and opened a bed-and-breakfast where guests can sit on the veranda and watch paddle-wheelers churn up and down the Mississippi River.

Economic development officials say retiree recruitment is especially well-suited to smaller towns.

"Many of these towns aren't in the running for business relocations – in fact, many have lost manufacturing plants in recent years," said Penn Wilson, an executive with the American Association of Retirement Communities.

Yet their slower pace of life and their neighborliness are exactly what many older adults are looking for in a retirement town, he said.

Every community trying to attract retirees needs to assess itself and play to its strengths, said Mr. Warren, the economic consultant who helps towns develop strategic plans for appealing to older adults.

Those strengths may be a community's vibrant downtown or miles of waterfront property. But the attractions aren't always so obvious, he adds.

"When I worked with Thomasville, Ga., I found the town had quite a few bowling alleys," he explained. "I also discovered many of the town's relocated retirees came from the Midwest, where bowling is still popular."

So Mr. Warren told Thomasville officials to advertise in bowling magazines.

Texas lawmakers say they particularly looked at Mississippi in crafting their new retiree recruitment program.

As in Mississippi, Texas towns will be certified as "retirement communities," said state Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine. Then they'll receive state help in tailoring their sales pitches to prospective retirees.

But unlike Mississippi's $275,000-per-year program, Texas legislators have set aside no state money for marketing.

So the Agriculture Department, which will oversee the effort, hopes to dovetail retiree recruitment with the state's existing promotions, said Robert Wood, assistant commissioner for rural economic development.

One community likely to be among the first seeking certification is Tyler, where officials have long recognized the economic value of retirees.

"The biggest payroll in Smith County is the $25 million that our Social Security recipients get each month," said Tom Mullins, president of the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce and the Tyler Economic Development Council.

Those dollars, together with pension and dividend checks, make up the "mailbox economy." Ninety percent of that money gets spent in the local economy and creates jobs, Mr. Mullins said.

Tyler markets itself to prospective retirees through brochures, a "senior expo" and a Web site that, in David Letterman style, lists "10 Reasons to Retire in Tyler, Texas."

Mr. Mullins sees retiree recruitment as a complement to the community's ambitious campaign to lure business relocations.

"It's not an either-or proposition for us," he explained. "Seniors are just one of the pistons driving our economic engine."

The chamber president says he believes the strategy is working because home builders tell him of affluent, out-of-state retirees arriving in town and paying cash for new houses.

Another true believer in the merits of attracting retirees is Gene Nethery, a board member of the Pineywoods Economic Partnership in Lufkin who was an advocate for the state legislation.

At 66, he's returned to the land he knew as a child. After a 40-year career in the construction business that took him away from the Piney Woods, he built a retirement home on what was once his grandfather's property in Sabine County.

He's convinced that East Texas will have the same allure for other older adults, if only it promotes itself more.

"Retirees will be the economic driver for this area 25 years from now," he said. "Folks like me aren't the past – we represent the future."

E-mail bmoos@dallasnews.com