Photo by Christina Shields Photography

The iconic quote from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come” seems to be the motto of many shopping centers, as the property owners and managers take a back seat once contracts have been negotiated and leases signed.  But can shopping centers always rely on the stores they house to provide adequate pedestrian activity? Much can be learned from shopping centers that are fostering a sense of community within their developments – and those properties are having surprising results!

Bakery Square is a perfect example of a mixed-use development working to benefit both the shoppers and retailers. Rather than relying on stores to offer incentives to draw in crowds and hoping that shoppers spend additional time window shopping, Pittsburgh’s Bakery Square has established itself as not only a shopping destination, but also as a place where families can spend time together. The community that has been cultivated at this popular shopping district can be an inspiration for property managers everywhere.

Photo by Christina Shield Photography

While Black Friday shopping was markedly a success with brick and mortar retailers this year, Bakery Square saw the need for community focused events to bring shoppers together. Gregg Perelman of Walnut Capital explained that while shoppers are drawn to particular stores at Bakery Square, they do not necessarily visit many other stores on their shopping excursions. He noted that, being a mixed-use development, the fitness center and offices see a good portion of center’s foot traffic, so it can be a challenge to bring passersby from the streets into the stores. Bakery Square’s answer to this? An event that would promote local vendors, provide entertainment for children and adults, and encourage shoppers to mill about from store to store. This event was called Winter Wonderland.

Bakery Square’s pedestrian activity during Winter Wonderland (November 30th and December 1st) compared to the start of the holiday shopping season one week prior (November 23rd and 24th). Black Friday and the following Saturday saw steady activity, but paled in comparison to Winter Wonderland turnout.

I Made It! for the Holidays! kicked off the Winter Wonderland event Friday, November 30th. From 5 pm until 10 pm, a Holiday Marketplace featuring over 85 local vendors and artisans drew in crowds of shoppers. When juxtaposed with a typical Friday this time of year, it is easy to recognize the impact Winter Wonderland had on bringing in a steady flow of shoppers.

The second day of Winter Wonderland continued with I Made It! for the Holidays! and with the addition of photos with Santa (even pets were invited!) and Tapped! Pop Up Beer Garden! with local brews and treats from local restaurants and vendors and music by DJ Gordy Greenawalt. It is clear that each of these components contributed to the success of Winter Wonderland.

Photo by Christina Shields Photography

Perelman spoke to the necessity of events such as Winter Wonderland, “The shoppers like other retailers, but they come for one and they don’t always go to the other stores. During Winter Wonderland, people visited the vendors that were set up and after that they went to Anthropologie and then they went to Free People and so on. In the end, everyone benefitted from people being at Winter Wonderland.” Perelman said that retailers had “taken a chance” on Bakery Square following the mid 2000s purchase by Walnut Capital; since that time Walnut Capital has used a combination of inventiveness and industry expertise to keep retailers, shoppers, and the local community pleased. One of their latest innovations has been the installation of Motionloft sensors throughout the mixed-use development. Offices (most notably, Google), retailers, the fitness center, and the Marriott SpringHill Suites all attract people for different reasons and understanding how they move throughout Bakery Square allows for improved features and attractions. Perelman mentioned the addition of a farmer’s market to Bakery Square once the weather warms up and hinted at another I Made It! Market in the spring.

Photo by Christina Shields Photography

The team at Motionloft extends our deepest condolences to those affected by the devastating tragedy last week in Newtown, Connecticut. The unfathomable events of last Friday are both senseless and sickening. As the community works together for healing, the victims and their friends and families across the nation remain in our thoughts.

Monday 29 – Sandy Arrives With the MTA shut down, the city grinds to a halt. Pedestrian counts fall 90.5% while vehicle traffic is down 84.57% – both counts steadily decline throughout the day until T-minus 1 hour till Sandy, when there is a scramble before the storm hits.

Previous Monday

With Sandy hours away New Yorkers make final preparations before the storm. Though most of the city hunkered down well before the storm, at the 6 o’clock hour there is a spike of last minute preparation and movement in the city.

So what can we learn from this data and how can we utilize that knowledge to help prepare for disasters and the recovery efforts that follow? The obvious spike in movement just before Sandy hits is a clear indicator of lack of preparation by many New Yorkers, but why? How did this dramatic spike affect retailers? Were they prepared to meet the demands of a frenzy of last minute shoppers? In the wake of Sandy, there are many questions left unanswered. Over the next few weeks Motionloft will be diving deeper into our data, as well as contacting local business and government officials to compare their experiences with the information we have gathered. If you would like to compare your business’ experience with Sandy to our data, please contact us at (415)625-0162.

Commercial Real Estate and Retail professionals,

We need to talk.

You’ve been relying on traditional sampling for too long. Years ago, it made sense to use hand counters and census information… but it’s the 21st century and you can do better. The most recent census data is already a few years old and provides no insight as to how people actually move throughout your city. Hand counters can only give counts for the hours that they are active and they are prone to human error. The rest is a guess.

You deserve real time information, tailored analytics, and accurate data. You deserve to know what is happening at your specific location and you should be able to compare that location to others. You should be able to look back over time and see how traffic has changed through factors such as construction, differing seasons, and even business decisions you have made.

So, do yourself a favor and break up with studies.

Motionloft

It has been one week since Motionloft participated as an exhibitor at ICSC’s annual real estate convention, RECon. We had a great time connecting with the industry in Las Vegas and the experience was invaluable. Not only were we able to introduce commercial real estate to the idea of real-time pedestrian and vehicle data, we learned a great deal about how the world of CRE operates. The contacts we made at the convention indicate continued rapid expansion of the Motionloft network and a firm interest in our data.

Until now, many property owners, brokers, developers, and retailers have avoided dealing with pedestrian data, even though they recognize the clear need and value of having access to such data. The reasons they gave us for not knowing the number of people who are walking by their properties included lack of access to that service, that the existing information is mainly guesswork, outdated or unreliable, and that the data they are able to collect provides only a snapshot. At RECon, we were able to educate CRE professionals about how our sensors are reliable and accurate in counting numbers of both pedestrians and vehicles. We also discussed the value of ongoing pedestrian and vehicle data – from initial property development to assessing a location’s value during leasing and even for retail staffing or promotional decisions, the analytics provided by Motionloft show not only what is happening at that moment, but also trends as they occur over time. Add to this the ease of access of our interface, and one struggles to find a valid reason to not get up to date (and ahead of the competition) with Motionloft. At the convention, it was clear to us that the world of commercial real estate is more than ready for data innovation.

First and foremost, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new website. The site better answers the question “Why do I need Motionloft?” and has streamlined the process by which you obtain an account. But don’t take our word for it, check out our new video, featuring Ross Portugeis.

Additionally, we were pleased to be featured in a Fast Company article last month, via their Co.EXIST blog. At the time of publication, Motionloft was also hard at work expanding our network to New York City!

Our countdown to RECon is dwindling – we are one week away from ICSC’s Global Retail Real Estate Convention. We’re looking forward to educating brokers, retailers, and real estate owners about how Motionloft’s innovative data can give them the advantage in the world of commercial real estate. It’s not too late to schedule a meeting with us - click here, if you will be at RECon. We’ll see you at booth 103 in the Marketplace Mall!

We have been extremely busy the past couple months. We’ve doubled our sensor network and are now collecting data in over 10 San Francisco neighborhoods. Our vision of turning San Francisco into the first Motionloft equipped urban area is quickly becoming a reality.

Our system has analyzed over 16 million 42 million vehicles and pedestrians in San Francisco to date. Dang.

As we continue to expand, we are learning a lot about just how useful our data can be to business owners. If you haven’t gone to Show Dogs on Market Street, go there, buy a ShowBurger, and ask one of the co-owners, Bruce, how he is liking our data. Or, you can listen to him talk about us here. Either way, Motionloft has definitely arrived in San Francisco.

In a previous post we mentioned Show Dogs, and its charismatic co-owner, Bruce McDonald. We wanted to highlight Bruce and his story just a bit more because we are pleased to say that our data is really helping him make some critical decisions as a business owner.

Bruce McDonald – Show Dogs from Motionloft on Vimeo.

He looks great on camera doesn’t he?

Movie star quality aside, Bruce demonstrates a previously unmet need for detailed analytics when it comes to site selection, expansion, and day to day operations. Every bit of data can help when making a decision as important as where to expand next.

We aim to be the go-to source for pedestrian and vehicle analytics when faced with these types of decisions. Have a listen to Bruce, and be on the lookout for our next story.

Online companies have been taking advantage of web analytics for years now. The concept is simple: understand the online habits and behaviors of consumers. How many people visit your website a day? When do you get the most traffic? The broader question remains the same for every business owner, how do I get more people to my business?

If you own a traditional brick-and-mortar business with hefty overhead expenses, then you know the feeling of wondering, “Where is everybody?” Motionloft’s team of engineers have worked hard to develop a network of sensors that cannot only answer questions like that, but also show you those answers in real-time.

Our network gives users the ability to navigate through cities down to the block level, enabling them to understand useful activity patterns throughout the days, weeks, months and (eventually) years.

Our technology has been built as an open platform allowing for other powerful tools to grow and develop our product’s capabilities. The possibilities of Motionloft’s technology span across various verticals (real estate, retail, hospitality, urban planning, etc.) and is especially valuable to businesses with multiple locations. This technology is just beginning to be tapped and is giving Brick and Mortar new life via real-time analytics.