Area Research Associates was established in 1992 and provides site location expertise to the retail and other convenience-oriented industries. All of our principals have 25 or more years of experience forecasting the future potential of literally thousands of sites around the world. As an innovator in the fusing of geo-spatial forecasting and statistical analysis, Area Research Associates provides the tools and experience that enable companies to make more successful real estate decisions.

About Us

We’ve all heard the old retailing adage about the importance of location, location, location. But how do you locate the right consulting firm to help you evaluate a prospective site?

You need a firm that has extensive real-world experience, industry knowledge, cutting edge methodology and a feel for the “ground level” subtleties of the marketplace. They need to be able to analyze an immense volume of factors such as trade area demographics, future population distribution, traffic flow, competitive offerings and consumer psychographics to name a few. On top of that, they need to be able to step back from the detail to help you see the big picture.

Area Research Associates has the tools and the experience necessary to help your company select the right locations. Each of our principals – Tom Brennan, Jeff Londer and Mike Puckhaber – has been successfully forecasting convenience-oriented locations for 25 years or more.

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Our Approach

The success of our clients is what determines our own success so Area Research Associates commits to always serving their long term interests. We offer our professional advice before, during and after you proceed in order to ensure that your real estate investment dollars are used most effectively. We understand that we are entrusted with an important advisory role so we work to ensure that the quality of our services gives you the solid support that you need.

Our job is not simply to provide sales numbers whenever a potential site comes your way but when necessary, to also offer early intervention that can help you screen out locations that are NOT going to work.  If we think we can save you time and money by not going forward with a full scale analysis, we’ll tell you that up front. We may alert you to other opportunities if we find them or share advice on where to search so that you end up with a development that works. In short, we aim to exceed your expectations for superior service and to help keep your development program on target from start to finish.

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Experience

Site selection is like any area of expertise – the only sure-fire way to develop the skills necessary to obtain real mastery is to put in years and years of practice.  There is simply no replacement for the value of experience when the success of your company’s development program is at stake.

In recent years the market has become flooded with new technologies that claim to let you instantly forecast sites at the press of a button. On the surface this seems like an appealing alternative. But one expensive real estate mistake can give you a painful lesson in the hazards of an approach that relies more on technology than experience. On the flip side, many of the biggest location consulting firms have key experienced people overseeing operations from the top of the organization but the actual day-to-day work is often handed off to relatively inexperienced analysts. At Area Research Associates we offer the best of both worlds – the latest in technology harnessed by people whose entire careers have been devoted to site location research.

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