Commercial Investment Real Estate Spring 2020 | Page 42

SITE TO DO BUSINESS CASE STUDY
By Nicholas Leider
GOOD THINGS
COME IN THREES
When a client wanted to locate three Dairy Queens
in southern Louisiana, one CCIM leveraged Site To Do Business
to streamline the site selection process.
C
linton Shepard, CCIM, born and
raised in West Monroe, La., relocated
to the southern part of the state in
2015 when he joined NAI Latter & Blum.
With an expertise in site selection and lo-
cation analytics, Shepard needed to lean on
his knowledge of the area when a client ap-
proached him with a proposal: Scout poten-
tial locations for Dairy Queens in southern
Louisiana and provide three optimal sites for
new store development.
First, Shepard had to take a look at
the site selection parameters provided by
American Dairy Queen. The lot size would
need to accommodate a typical Dairy Queen
facility with the required parking per city
requirements and a drive-thru lane. But the
job got trickier when considering the ideal
location for a potential store. Any prospec-
tive site would also need to include:
• A residential population of 12,500 or
more within a five-minute drive.
• A daytime working population of 5,000
or more within a five-minute drive.
• A median household income of at least
$40,000, though $50,000 or above
would be preferred.
• The ability to acquire drive-thru zoning
with a preferred six-car stack between
the window and the ordering station.
For much of the process, Shepard, based
in Lafayette, had to work remotely with his
clients in New Orleans, more than a two-hour
drive away. The straightforward presentation
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COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE MAGAZINE
Site to Do Business allowed Shepard to share demographic and population data in southern Louisiana.
of demographic and population data, however,
allowed both sides to communicate clearly.
“In screen-share meetings, we got to-
gether and both looked at the same maps,”
Shepard said. “It was great initially to show
him on the Site To Do Business smart maps,
for instance, how changes in variables
would alter the areas that remain viable. I
could show them, ‘If we change the income
variable, this is no longer available,’ and so
on. For them, it was helpful because they
were focused on incomes in certain ranges.
I can set that range, and then change the
parameters on household or population
density. The client can then immediately
see what changes.”
In real estate, no two deals are the
same — though in this case, it’s true all
three deals came with their own chal-
lenges. Here’s a rundown of how Shepard
was able to connect his clients with the
ideal properties.
“I knew it was a hot area, and the data
from the initial smart map backed that up,”
Shepard says. “We found a site close to the
interstate, and I pulled general demograph-
ic information, income profiles, and traffic
counts on the site. The data we found made
sense, and the clients liked the site due to the
proximity to I-10 and present growth trends.”
The local community was smaller
than other potential sites, with only 2,143
SPRING 2020