By ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor

Shopping at The Avenue Murfreesboro.

Murfreesboro may officially prove to national retailers and companies that the city isn’t a bedroom community of Nashville with its latest population figures, area commercial brokers said.

“It will bring more attention to the market,” said Micah Lacher, an affiliate broker with the Nashville office of Holrob Commercial Realty, of special census results indicating the city now has 100,575 residents.

But he says the percentage of population growth may be more important than crossing over the 100,000 mark.

“The percentage of growth is going to have more of an impact than the actual number since it (city) has grown so quickly,” Lacher said.

The city of Murfreesboro’s population grew by 23.5 percent over three years.

“Growth spurs growth,” indicated John Forster, a partner in the Nashville office of The Shopping Center Group, a retail real estate brokerage firm.

Area brokers aren’t sure if Murfreesboro’s new population figures will directly put the city on certain retailers and companies watch list, but it couldn’t hurt in attracting more attention to the city.

“I do think it is going to make a difference,” Forster said of Murfreesboro’s larger population, “but you can’t directly put your finger on it.

“Every time that you hit a new threshold, when cities are ranked it is going to get someone’s attention,” he added later.

Most retailers take in consideration such factors as population of the market area served, median income, educational system and location when selecting a site for a new store.

MTSU and the city’s established job base and labor force already are strong selling points for Murfreesboro, Forster said.

“It is its own functioning market outside of Nashville,” he said.

Murfreesboro has been serving multiple counties for some time and is part of the reason why the city attracted such big box stores as Dick’s Sporting Goods and Best Buy that only enters markets serving more than 200,000 people, Forster said.

Doug Howard, a broker with Colliers Turley Martin Tucker Commercial Real Estate Services in Brentwood, doesn’t know if a 100,000 population would help the city attract commercial office users and other new industry.

“While I don’t know whether certain companies only consider coming to a city if the population is at least 100,000, it stands to reason that companies are looking to locate in markets that can supply excellent labor, a good quality of life, affordable housing options, and a pro-business environment,” he said. “Murfreesboro is a market that has so much to offer and competes well in all of these categories, therefore I am not sure if the 100,000-person threshold will make a difference in recruiting, but it probably can’t hurt.”

John Harney, a commercial real estate broker with The Parks Group Commercial Real Estate, said the rising population could help Murfreesboro get on the short list for companies looking to relocate a corporate or regional headquarters.

“They (companies) will search certain thresholds,” he said. “This puts us in another tier of being looked at as a larger market.”

Rob Lyons, assistant Murfreesboro city manager, said the city will take any extra attention it can get from commercial real estate brokers and consultants.

“Obviously, our community’s growth has put us on the radar for a number of consultants and this will be another factor in our favor,” he said.

Lacher said the new population could cause some retailers to revaluate the way they view Murfreesboro.

“Some (retailers) may reevaluate and say Murfreesboro is now large enough to have two stores in the market,” he said.

Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.