Site Location and the Importance of Nearby Points of Interest
When looking for a place to open a business or when investing in commercial real estate, you likely spend a lot of time researching prospective properties. Real estate decisions should encompass more than just the property that you're considering. Although you'll likely start by looking at the property itself, you'll also want to consider its surroundings.
Depending on your business or goals, there are bound to be certain landmarks or points of interest that would be particularly helpful to be located near. For example, if your business depends on foot-traffic, you may want to be located near public transportation points like bus stops and train stations. Likewise, there may be certain things that you want, or even need, to avoid when choosing your location.
If you have a specific location in mind, it's possible to simply go to something like Google Maps and search for your points of interest in the immediate vicinity, but a better approach to finding the right spot for your business or investment property involves leveraging location tools.
Location Intelligence and Points of Interest
If you have the coordinates for your points of interest, you can leverage spatial analysis methods to quickly narrow down potential sites. Extending the example from above, if you have points representing the public transportation drop-off locations, and you know you want to be within 500 feet of one, GIS tools can quickly identify properties that are available within those zones.
Points of interest may also include nearby businesses. Savvy analysts and investors can use business location data as a way to predict consumer demographics and behaviors in an area. They can also analyze competition to identify trends on a very local level.
Where to Get Points of Interest
When it comes to obtaining POI data to enhance your site selection analysis, there are several options. Your decision will most likely be based on several factors, including your budget and how you wish to use the data. One completely free option is using OpenStreetMap to obtain points of interest. However, depending on where you are located, the data available on OSM may not be complete or recent enough for business analysis purposes.
Most commercial vendors (e.g. Google, HERE, Foursquare) of POI data provide it in one of two ways. Either via APIs for use in software applications or as bulk downloads. Data delivered via APIs is generally meant for ad-hoc use in applications and results cannot be permanently stored, while bulk downloads are often better for research and analysis. When choosing a commercial POI provider, be sure to check their terms of use to make sure they are compatible with what you want to do.
If you're interested in learning more about building a POI database and using it as the basis for spatial analysis, contact us today.
