Site selection criteria in community shopping centers : implications for real estate developers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate retail site selection criteria in community centers and ascertain the implications of these criteria for the retail real estate developer. Historically, real estate developers contemplating the development of a community center will acquire a site based on hunches, experience, and a limited amount of data. Real estate academics, on the other hand, have produced numerous mathematical models and methods for retail site selection. However, to the real estate developer the retail community shopping center has remained elusive. Not only will developers oftentimes face the prospect of site selection without a complete picture of who their tenants will be, but they will be left to their own experience to understand in depth the needs and preferences of typical community center tenants. This paper will explore current methods and site selection criteria used by leading community center tenants for site selection and will investigate how that information can be implemented by the developer to improve the ir approach to retail site selection.