I was hoping someone else would respond ... I think of site selection as a "roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty" thing. More of an art than a science. I'd bet 99% of the guys who do it did NOT learn it from a book. I've met people who do it for a living for large corporations, and they are not exactly "scholarly" guys. Hell, some of it's very basic and is pure common sense. If you're really interested, you'd learn a lot more by simply sitting down with land brokers, land buyers (there are funds simply focused on buying land), and, of course, various developers.

I just ordered the book, though, for the hell of it. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Regarding Prospie's post, I agree that "site selection as a "roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty" thing. More of an art than a science."

I looked for info in books on urban retail site selection and found nothing. I have done site selection in NYC, and our demand drivers are all within a 1-block radius (3-blocks if I am being expansive. It came down with finding out who was in the buildings and what their spending habits were (I built out a detailed spreadsheet I'm happy to share).

A good example of this boots-on-the ground (and buying habit surveillance) example is when restauranteur Danny Meyer was interviewed (on Charlie Rose?) talking about his Blue Smoke restaurant near Goldman Sachs headquarters in downtown Manhattan. He said he found out there was about $25 worth of meal money given to GS employees who stay after 9PM or so (I'm sure many readers of WSO will know this type of thing all too well). He created a $24.99 (or thereabouts) takeout meal and orders soared. Finding this sort of thing out is really crucial.

When researching demand for food near in another part of town for another bank (not GS), I asked about how good the internal cafeteria was and what the patterns of people eating in/out were. It depended on the specific role in the bank (certain groups got more time than others)--but a certain group (that made up the bulk in this one building) liked to get out of the building for a coffee to talk whenever possible--this ended up being the biggest demand drivers in our retail analysis (and the fact the bank was 2 blocks away and walkable).

PM me if I can be of any help with urban retail site selection.

 
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