Professor Crocker H. Liu                                                                                               Revised: May 8, 2003
Real Estate Finance

 Location Analysis: Profiling the Neighborhood

Objective: The goal of this assignment is to give you some exposure to what is meant by "walking the site" or in layman's terms, "location, location, location."
 
Assignment: Assume that New York University(NYU) is the anchor tenant in Greenwich Village.  Define and delineate the "neighborhood" surrounding NYU using streets,  and other landmarks on a map.  In particular, what are the perceived boundaries of NYU?  As a starting point, you should obtain an NYU map showing the buildings in and around the Greenwich Village area.You can also take a virtual tour of the village with NYTourist , Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, and New York Songlines. General maps of the area can be found at Yahoo. NYC Oasis mapping service provides free customizable maps of NYC using a particular theme. 

Once you have delineated the boundaries of NYU, your group should walk up and down the major streets in the neighborhood i.e., Bleeker, Broadway, LaGuardia/West Broadway, etc. paying attention to the types of business establishments and where they tend to locate. (For a colorful history of how street names were chosen in the village, visit NYU's Greenwich Village History. Bobst library's website also offers a historical insight into the Village)  For a description of the Greenwich neighborhood, visit cityrealty.com. 

To get an overview of New York City, please visit the Digital Atlas of New York City.  Other sources of data include the CityReview, NYC Reference Guide, Paperless Guide to New York City , and MetrobeatNY CitySearch. 

Source: NYC Digital City


Do a productivity analysis on the neighborhood/major streets and avenues.  The sources of data are provided as a starting point for your research. Warning: You should use more resources than those provided.  Please cite your sources of data using proper citation methods. More specifically, analyze the
 
Attribute/Environment
Sources of Data (only a starting point)
Physical Environment (Physical Attributes): Among other things:
  • Discuss soil composition of the area and how it is related to building height and development possibilities.
  • Does your defined neighborhood have any flood areas? Does your area have an overwhelmingly high concentration of environmental hazards? Please provide an enivronmental sensitivity map designating sites that have possible discharge to water, hazardous waste handlers, toxic releases, air emissions and multiple activities.
  • Discuss the type of buildings, architecture, heights of buildings, the structural soundness (integrity) and general condition of the structures. Does the type of building(s) and type of architecture tend to differ by area? For example, does a cast-iron district exist in your neighboorhood and where is it? What does the Federal Emergency Mangement Agency (FEMA) have to say about the building inventory/structures? 
  • Point out prominent buildings/landmarks in the neighborhood.  Do landmark buildings tend to cluster?
  • Discuss the availability of parking. On a map, locate all of the parking garages in the neighborhood.  Do parking garages (including open area parking) tend to cluster together? 
 Elliot Willensky and Norval White, AIA Guide to New York City. Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, To get a sense of architectural styles, check out Daniel's Manhattan, NY Skyscrapers: 100 Yrs of History. For information and maps on the census, environment, flood areas, topography, etc., go to ReBuzz.
Use Environment (Linkages and Clustering among Business Establishments): 
  • Discuss which business establishments tend to cluster together i.e., are compatible with one another.  Observe whether there are incongruous land uses as well.  For example,  there is a clustering of antique shops on Broadway, near the Strand Bookstore (12th Street).   Please discuss your findings of business establishment groupings by major streets. In addition to this, please prepare a compatibility matrix showing which types of business establishments are compatible or incompatible with one another in the NYU neighborhood.  Also, discuss the compatibility matrix.  Note: The compatibility matrix that I have provided is very general.  I want a more detailed compatibility matrix which qualitatively correlates the types of businesses in your NYU defined neighborhood.  Broad land use categories such as office buildings don't cut it.
  • Discuss which business establishments are complementary to NYU (the anchor tenant/dominant use).  Which business types are incompatible with NYU?  Are there any other anchors or mini-anchor tenants in the "neighborhood" (co-dominant use)?  If so, are these anchor/mini anchor tenants complementary to NYU? What are the ancilliary uses and subordinate uses that support the dominant/co-dominant uses in the NYU area? Please discuss. Prepare a situs map showing NYU, the neighborhood that encompasses NYU, and the various one way/two way linkages to other related establishments.  Please discuss this situs map. Click here for an example of a situs schematic. (The file is a .bmp file so you can set the Pick App... in Netscape to a paint program such as mspaint.exe which is located in your Accessories file folder on your C drive). 
  • Locate and discuss the transportation corridors including subways and bus stops e.g. how accessible is your neighborhood in terms of transportation (various). Please include a subway map.  Discuss both positive and negative externalities. 
  • Discuss the demographics of the neighborhood and be sure to include a table(s) of the salient demographics.
 CACI (also check out the hard copy version in the library entitled "The Sourcebook of Zip Code Demographics", CACI Marketing Systems), US Gazetteer, NYRealty, NYC Guide, MTA - Subway and Bus, NYMLS . To obtain a map of  the various attributes for an area, try MapsOnUs. If you wish to map subway routes try this Straphanger link.
Economic Environment:
  • Discuss what are the rents for commercial, retail, and apartments in the neighborhood.  Is this a high-class neighborhood relative to other neighborhoods based on your analysis of rents?
  • Provide and analyze information on property taxes, parking expenses (per hour charges) in the area, and the  income of residents by zipcode and/or census tract(s) in your neighborhood.  Be sure to include a map showing the zip codes in the neighborhood.  Also include a map of the census tracts that make up your neighborhood.  Delineate the average income per tract or zip code on this map.
 Property Tax by Zipcode,
NYC Property Tax: 1) Dept of Finance, 2)Sources; Income Stats by Zipcode, Corcoran (real estate), ESGordon (real estate), Newmark (real estate), Yale Robbins and MrOffice (real estate), Julian J. Studley (real estate), Cityfeet (real estate). NYC Rent Guidelines Board. Rents can also be obtained from Tenantwise.com , NYMetro and the NYTimes. The 1997 Economic Census provides a profile of the types of businesses in a given zipcode. 
Social/Psycological Environment (Dynamic Attributes): 
  • Discuss the social status of different streets and subareas.  Also the perception of certain streets and subareas i.e., safety, gay vs. straight, ethnic enclaves, social life-Generation X hangouts vs. yuppies vs. bohemians, etc.
  • Obtain crime statistics and discuss how crime in your neighborhood compares to other neighborhoods.
 New York.sidewalk.com offers information on movies, restaurants, and other aspects of social life in various NYC neighborhoods.  Locations are shown on maps.  Choose the social aspect you wish to see i.e., restaurants, and then select the neighborhood. Claritas and ESRI give various clusters of social status groups that comprise any given neighborhood.
Institutional Environment (Legal Attributes):
  • Discuss the zoning and land use regulations for the NYU neighborhood.  Please be sure to include a zoning map of the neighborhood. 
  • Discuss the building regulations/ restrictions including floor area ratios (FAR), height limitations, etc.
 Jack Brause Library @ NYU's Real Estate Institute located at 11 West 42nd Street, Floors 5-6. "Zoning Handbook" published by the Department of City Planning (click on Dept of City Planning to access zoning maps among other things)of New York City. 

Maps

Succession (In addition to Productivity Analysis):
  • Are there any areas in the neighborhood where succession is occuring?  If so, where are these areas located (discuss and provide a map)?  What is the nature of the succession of land uses/business establishments?  Succession is defined as any major change in the use of an existing building/structure or land parcel.  This includes all land use changes within a particular land use category (such as changing a regional shopping mall to a factory outlet mall) in addition to changes between major land uses (such as converting a residence into a cottage industry i.e. dental office).  For an example of the stages in the land use life cycle of a typical residential neighborhood, click here.

You are allowed to work in groups of no more than 3 people.  Each person in the group must indicate what he or she did as a group member.  There will be a severe penalty (an F) for any person in the group who mimics a remora (a parasitical fish who sticks to the under belly of a shark and gets a free ride).  You will receive two grades, one based on your analysis and the other based on your writing.