6C — June 14 - 27, 2013 — Pennsylvania — Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal
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C entral Pa
By Heather Kreiger, RoCK Commercial Real Estate Crucial gIS Tactics for retail site selection analysis
O
ne of the main benefits of using GIS (Geograph- ic Information Systems)
tors within a market (distance to competitors, total population within a one mile radius or one hour drive-time, etc) and make a decision you can be confident about. When trying to determine the best retail location, the follow- ing factors should be taken into consideration: 1. What “market” do I want to be in? A “market” may differ depending on the type and size of the retailer. While a neighbor- hood beauty salon may consider their market to be only a few block radius of their location, larger retailers such as grocery and department stores may con-
sider their market to be a 20-50 mile radius. Whatever the mar- ket size, most retailers have a specific set of criteria they need to meet their goals. Some factors to take into consideration when identifying a market may be: What type of product or ser- vice are you selling? Who are your current clients and where do they live, work, and play? What target audience would benefit from your product or service and who can afford to purchase your product or ser- vice? Is your business one that your
audience will stop at on their way to and from work (conve- nience) or one that people will make a special trip for (desti- nation)? Critical factors that may be needed to identify a market can include total population, specific population ranges, household income, daytime population, consumer buying power, and the location of schools, hospi- tals, and other major employ- ers, as well as complimentary retailers (i.e. a pizza shop may want to be located near a beer distributor). What GIS tactics can help: With GIS, analysis can be per-
formed with modeling, which are automated processes that use input data (such as sites) and geoprocessing tools which perform the analysis needed on the input data. In the map example above, this specific model narrowed down available properties in the Greater York region from 26 to 3 potential properties that were located within a one mile radius of hospitals and a one mile radius of colleges, universities, and tech schools. 2. What specific features are needed / desired at a potential location? After a market or markets have been identified, the next step is to determine what features are needed or desired in your loca- tion. Some things to consider may be: Amount of square footage Type of location (free stand- ing building, corner location, in-line space within a shopping center) Buy or lease How much parking is needed Existing building or “build to suit” (purchasing or leasing a piece of land to construct a build- ing specifically for your needs) Visibility along roadways, signage, and traffic counts Accessibility from roadways Other nearby traffic genera- tors (schools, hospitals, univer- sities, entertainment venues, or other major retailers such as grocery and department stores) 3. Where is my competition located? Lastly, as I have stated in previous blog articles, a valu- able source of information to obtain when looking for a new retail location is the location of competitors within chosen mar- kets. Knowing whether or not a market is over saturated with a specific product could be a deter- mining factor in the success of failure of your chosen location. When analyzing competition within a market, identifying the following will give you a clear idea of what is happening in your market: What types of business do you consider your competitors and who are those businesses? Where are your competitors located at within your market? What types of products and services do they offer? What are their hours of op- eration? What are the marketing tac- tics that they use within the market? Heather Kreiger is direc- tor of research for RoCK Commercial Real Estate. n
to assist in the site selection process is the ability to vi- sual l y ana- lyze sites and markets. GIS analysis uses simple geo- p r o c e s s i n g
Heather Kreiger
tools as well as complex models and scripts all of which help to determine the best possible locations/markets. With geopro- cessing, you have the ability to spatially compare a site to fac-
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