My fascination with location analytics started in 1993 when I was an undergraduate at the University of South Carolina majoring in Geology. I attended an interpretation of aerial photos class, that I loved, and it was in that class that I discovered Geographic Information Systems (GIS). I had already changed majors several times so at this point I decided that I would get a cognate in Geography. At the time a cognate was almost like a second major, and this would allow me to fit in some GIS classes while still graduating almost on time. My geology professor Dr. John Shervais also allowed me to do an independent study using Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) ArcInfo GIS software to create a geologic map. Only problem with this project was that I didn’t know EsriArcInfo or how to operate the UNIX workstation it was on. Dr. Shervais pointed me to the workstation and to the wall of literally 30 thick ArcInfo Manuals and said “Here it is, get started!” I spent many hours learning to navigate the UNIX operating system as well as learning Esri’s ArcInfo software so that I could replicate an existing paper geologic map in to GIS. Even though it was a rather torturous experience, I came out with a real appreciation for GIS and what it could potentially do. At the end of the project I could not find an export or print command, so I had to take a picture of the computer screen as proof that I completed the project.
From there I got an internship at Wilbur Smith and Associates (now CDM Smith), a transportation planning firm, where I got to use GIS in several interesting ways. Sometimes I was making maps for exhibits on projects, other times we used GIS to create traffic analysis zones that were used in transportation planning software. This software would then show the roads that needed to be widened as population growth increased traffic on the road network. Back then working with census data was interesting because we had to go to a special library at the University of South Carolina to check out the CDs with the data we needed. Then we had to go through a lot of work to format the data in the way we needed it for use in the software. After I graduated, the firm hired me full time and I stayed there for about four years.
Then one day I noticed an ad where a local commercial real estate company was looking for a GIS and Research person. This company, called Edens and Avant at the time, focused on shopping centers and real estate brokerage. So, I took the job and started the GIS and Research program. I was the first person there doing computer mapping and was proud to do the first portfolio map showing the locations of their shopping centers. This was a great fit for many years. The company grew to be a significant player in the shopping center industry and I got to do a lot of interesting things with GIS and spatial data. During my tenure there we won Special Achievement Awards from Esri in 2001 and in 2012,1 and I got to travel to most of the major cities on the east coast doing market analysis. The company paid for me to earn the LEED Green Associate designation from the U.S. Green Building Council. I also got involved with the Urban Land Institute by earning their Real Estate Development Certificate which required various classes in Century City, CA and Washington, DC.
One data set that I got to work with while I was there at the shopping center company, was provided by a company called SNL Real Estate, later acquired by S&P Global. The company that I was working for had a subscription to their data. S&P Global has amazing data that is used by leading investment banks, investment managers, corporate executives, ratings agencies, government agencies, consulting firms, law firms and media companies such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Forbes and Fortune.2 At the time I was a part of a two person GIS team and we were working on a location analytics project to better locate and analyze shopping center data. For example, using the right GIS software with this data set you can map out and study the demographics of all the locations of the major shopping center Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). The records for each shopping center had a longitude and latitude so we were busy geocoding this data and working on other various mapping projects using the data.
We noticed one day that one of the shopping center points was off. It was off by like 10 miles! A google search, followed by a visit to the REIT’s website showed the correct location. I remembered seeing somewhere that S&P Global had a $50 error guarantee (and they still do today).3 We sent the error in with a map pointing to the correct location from the incorrect location. Next thing we knew we get an e-mail back that reads, “yes your error has been accepted and your $50 gift card is on the way.” There were over 13,000 records at the time. Over the next 10 months or so we spent nights and weekends working through the database. And it was not just shopping centers, there were apartments, storage unit developments, even ski resorts! By using a nationwide aerial photo layer from Esri’s4 ArcGIS Online we were able to zoom in on each location and see from the aerial if the point was in the correct location. As a result, I can look at any aerial today and automatically spot all of the apartments, shopping centers, and storage unit developments. We systematically worked through that database and I believe that today (partly as a result of our work) S&P Global has one the best geographic databases on the market. And interestingly enough, most GIS analysts in the real estate industry business (even analysts from companies that subscribe to S&P Global) still don’t even know about it.
After surviving the Great Recession that started in late 2008, I decided to leave in 2012 to start a location analytics consulting group with a fellow GIS coworker at the time named George Daigh. Today our group is called Beitz and Daigh Geographics. A year later Todd Atkins, also from EDENS, came and joined our group as a partner. Both of my previous employer’s company names were based on the founder’s names, so we went with the name even though it bucked the current trend of short mostly meaningless names.
Running a location analytics firm has been challenging and interesting. Early on we became an Esri Business Partner, and they have been great to work with. It’s been fun to see what clients want to do and then to get to help them do it. One of the first big projects we worked on involved Esri and some site selection/location analytics work for a new Whole Foods location. Ahead of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) RECon conference in the summer of 2013, Esri asked us to create a location analytics and marketing package for Whole Foods to come to Redlands, California. In between other projects we spent months on this project. At the end we sent it to a Whole Foods broker, the director of research at Whole Foods, the Economic Development Director at the city of Redlands and we sent it to a successful Whole Foods developer in Atlanta. We almost instantly started getting feedback on the project. At ICSCS Recon in Las Vegas, Nevada the real estate developer met with us and the cities’ economic development director. After the conference the developer went to meet with the President of Esri, Mr. Jack Dangermond, to discuss some ways to work together on this project. Several years passed with little info on the project moving forward. Then we spoke with Mr. Dangermond at the Esri user conference in 2016. He mentioned that they were currently looking at two grocery retailers for the site. About a year later it was announced that the retailer Sprouts was going to be the grocery anchor. After the store opened, Mr. Dangermond let us know that it was one of the best openings saleswise that the retailer had ever had.