Canadian real estate investors are enjoying a period of profitability and prosperity by investing in retail property in Edmonton. Despite the huge development and population boom, the returns of Canadian investors will continue to see significant disparities based upon the exact location of their investments. Many would conjecture that it is virtually impossible to go wrong with investing in any form of commercial real estate in Edmonton today. They might be right but who wouldn&#x27t want to try and maximize their returns? The tried and true principle of focusing on “location, location, location” still rings true. For commercial real estate investors and businesses, this principle does not simply apply to the country, province or city of an investment, but rather goes right down to targeting exactly the right property and the right space within a given market. Many property investors continue to rely on old strategies that were developed when there were very few statistics or metrics readily available. Many of these strategies still act as great guides in location strategy, such as deciding whether it is better to set up a shop far from competitors in order to stand out, or to locate adjacent to them in order to benefit from targeted traffic and consumers. While these are great points to keep in mind, today&#x27s investors have access to concrete data that can be leveraged in order to make decisions based on facts versus assumptions. This data is key to pinpointing:

  • The viability of new developments or store openings
  • Lease absorption
  • Rental rates
  • Increasing value to properties
  • Identifying new opportunities
  • Choosing an ideal location
  • Traffic counts

In Edmonton, traffic counts are crucial, including both auto and pedestrian traffic. No one believes traffic figures are likely to wane for Edmonton landlords any time soon. However, new developments and changes in cities like Edmonton could also mean that the traffic flow and growth may not be as predictable as many would assume. For example, the lack of downtown parking, the new LRT expansions, and trends towards preferring more local shopping in shopping plazas closer to home, can all make a difference in the current traffic flow. While it pays to know what historical traffic figures look like, it could be even wiser to pinpoint what they are now, and get educated on where they are going in the near future. The old ways of accessing this information via local government traffic studies or hiring independent firms with physical employees to go out and physically count traffic has often been unreliable, time consuming, and very costly. Fortunately, new technology now offers more solutions for accurate traffic counts, even in real time and around the clock.   Want to learn more about Richard Crenian? http://richardcrenian.wordpress.com http://richardcrenian.ca  

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