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Overall,this study looks at a very conservative capture scenario for leaking retail sales in several <br />ways: <br />•Only counting existing leakage in both trade areas and presuming no population growth in <br />the primary trade area (which will continue to grow); <br />•Only counting local and regional population -not visitors (who comprise over 15%of the <br />customer base); <br />•Using a 20%capture rate used,leaving 80%of market leakage to continue to leak elsewhere; <br />•Using a very conservative $200 per square foot estimated sales across all retail categories. <br />The supportable square footage under this scenario is 95,000 square feet of total retail in the <br />overall trade area.Suburban developers are likely to use more aggressive numbers,leaving <br />anyone looking at downtown to focus on roughly a third of this number.Even still,this could <br />support significant expansion of the downtown's retail footprint by simply "freezing the <br />demand"in current time. <br />2.3.5 Key Housing Market Opportunities <br />Unlike retail market analysis,housing markets are much less precise to understand.Using the <br />projections for the primary trade area for population and household growth it can be assumed <br />that the Ellensburg market will add 120 additional housing units per year in Ellensburg or 600 by <br />2020.Building permit data reported through the City of Ellensburg corroborates this number <br />with the average of 55 new units (conservative estimate)coming online each year. <br />National trends in housing indicate increasing interest in downtown living both with millennials <br />and empty nesters.With Ellensburg's young average age of 30 and large proportion of college <br />students,there is a potential market for alternative kinds of housing such as lofts,condos and <br />apartments.A simply allocation model that captures only 50%of the demand for future housing <br />in the market would yield 150 new units that do not conform to the traditional single-family <br />house.This estimate for additional downtown housing is a bit more aggressive than the retail <br />assessment but the national trends point toward growth in this area and new product coming on <br />line corroborates these national trends.More detail as to the location of this housing is shown in <br />the plans below but they will generally cluster in upper floor units in the core of downtown and <br />in new mixed-use development between downtown and Central Washington University. <br />2.3.6 Hotel Market Opportunities <br />Ellensburg is home to ten hotel properties with a total of 682 hotel rooms.The occupancy rate <br />across all of these properties is 58%,which is slightly lower than the national standard of 62%. <br />It is important to note,however,that this occupancy rate accounts for some ageing properties <br />within the city limits of Ellensburg and that new properties experience higher occupancy. <br />The same is true for the average daily room rate in Ellensburg,which stands at $87 per night and <br />is lower than the national average daily room rate at $104 per night.Again,ageing properties <br />can account for this figure.More importantly,Ellensburg has experienced an increase in average <br />daily rates,revenue per available room,and occupancy rates.The Kittitas County Tourism <br />19