INDUSTRY: Specialty Retail
‍HEADQUARTERS: Birmingham, AL
‍STORES: 1,000+ nationwide

When you're trying to open hundreds of retail locations across the country, every day counts. For Hibbett Sports, a nationwide athletic apparel brand headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, store opening delays aren’t just frustrating—they’re also incredibly expensive.

“It starts to cost us weeks of sales,” said Jeremy Brown, Director of Construction and Design at Hibbett. “Losing 30 days means losing four to five weeks’ worth of sales—over $60,000 in revenue that you’ll never get back.”

A major blocker to retailers’ growth: permitting

Today, Hibbett Sports has opened over a thousand stores across the continental United States, and they’re looking to expand in even more states in the next five to ten years.

However, as municipalities grow and evolve, so do permitting requirements, and no two cities handle things the same way. Without knowing specifically what each jurisdiction requires, and with no centralized way to track submissions, comments, or forecasts, permitting can feel like a black box for retail teams.

Before Pulley, Hibbett relied on a patchwork of internal teams and third-party expeditors. “We weren't getting consistency that way,” Jeremy recalled.

For Hibbett’s Design Manager, Laura Philips, permitting was taking time away from her other priorities. “I was the one filling out the permit applications, doing the due diligence, calling the cities to find out exactly what they needed, corresponding with the architects and the contractors…it took a lot of my time.”

From 140 to 30 days––a permitting breakthrough in Florida

Hibbett opted to try out Pulley’s capabilities at a pivotal time.

"We decided to start with a sample size of about eight stores, and it produced great results," Jeremy explained.

One of the biggest wins was in Jacksonville, Florida—a jurisdiction where it used to take Hibbett over 140 days to pull permits. With Pulley, it only took 30.

The team flagged that Jacksonville was a tough jurisdiction. Before kicking off the submission process, Pulley tapped into their Expert Network of 300+ former planning and permitting officials. 

After consulting directly with the former Director of Planning & Development in Jacksonville to clarify the city’s requirements, the Pulley permit lead on the project then built a highly accurate permit plan and proactively met with the Jacksonville AHJ to ensure all requirements were addressed before submission.

Pulley kept in touch with the Jacksonville reviewer to ensure the review was processed quickly, and the submission was soon approved with no comments... unheard of in Jacksonville.

Thanks to Pulley, Hibbett opened four weeks early—just in time for Black Friday. “Having the ability to open for Black Friday is huge for us,” Jeremy points out. “That really brings up the profitability of that store.”

A reduction in permitting time from 140 days to 30 amounts to nearly $200,000 in top line revenue. Add in the factor of opening in time for the Black Friday surge, and the ROI becomes incredibly clear. Jeremy added:

Pulley’s centralized platform tracks projects with ease

Pulley’s platform gave Hibbett unprecedented visibility and support. For Laura, being able to easily track progress was a game changer. “I’m constantly communicating updates with our real estate department, and it’s nice being able to offer real time updates.” Laura can invite her entire project team to collaborate and save time communicating updates back and forth. “It's been great just having everything in one place. I invite anybody I need to collaborate with on it.”

Pulley’s permit leads provided critical support when it came to navigating technical challenges and submission comments. 

"Pulley’s permit leads have architectural or engineering backgrounds. If a city comment comes back and I’m not sure how we need to address it, they're able to work with our architects directly to address those comments," Laura added. "It's been a huge help.”

For Laura, it meant getting back to what really mattered—leading her team. And Jeremy felt the same. “I wasn’t chasing updates anymore,” he said. “They were right there in front of me. And the communication from the Pulley team was above and beyond.”

Enabling retail growth at scale with quality and speed

When you’re managing dozens, or hundreds, of store openings across the country, having the ability to track and manage permitting at scale is essential. A partner like Pulley doesn’t just save headaches–it’s a growth enabler.

By bringing in local expertise, a streamlined process, and cross-functional collaboration, Pulley helped Hibbett manage every build with consistency and speed. Across over 20 jurisdictions, Jeremy saw similar results:

“We pulled a permit in St. Louis in 48 hours. In all these different jurisdictions, I haven't seen one that's really tripped Pulley up, which has been great.”

Laura added, "Whether it’s Houston, California, or Jacksonville, the experience is the same. Transparent, reliable, and collaborative.” She even joked, “At first I thought, ‘Is this too good to be true?’ But Pulley has matched and exceeded our expectations.”

Hibbett’s advice to other national retailers

Jeremy has completed even more projects with Pulley, and he’s witnessed firsthand how the company evolves and grows. 

His biggest advice to other retail developers? Find a partner that can grow and evolve alongside your company, and prioritize your relationships. “Our relationship with Pulley is very transparent. It's growing as the industry's growing and changing, and I think that that's a really big deal.”

Laura's opinion? "Use Pulley. It just makes sense.”

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