Stand outside a central business district (CBD) location and you’ll see its attraction – People, lots of them. However, finding out if a CBD location will work for your business needs research. This article helps sort out the main issues, how to assess locations, and what to look for in a good downtown location.

Central Business Districts are normally located by historical necessity rather than modern day intent. Many can be clearly labelled as geographical accidents. The city of London (England) located by the Romans at a strategic crossing point of the Thames River, or Sydney (Australia) by the leaders of the first fleet. Typically these major centres are near water or other strategic means of communication. All of which does not necessarily help the modern shopper access them. In fact, the CBD’s location is often a hinderance!

Today, many CBD’s are alive and prosperous and have recently enjoyed a resurgence of population because of the development of prestigious city centre apartment blocks. Even in metropolitan areas which have other focal points such as London in the UK or Chicago in the US and perhaps Sydney’s Parramatta, the CBD still has a major pull.

Frequently they pull people with general interests like

• Culture
• GovernmentHistory
• Retail
• Professional Activity (Law, Financial services etc)
• Hotels
• Conventions
• Entertainment
• Tourism

If these interests reflect your target market then simply ranking them and adding up the number of Government offices, Hotels etc. in the area can help you determine the biggest attractors and therefore the types of people in the area by day. Often vast areas of the CBD are empty at night, and with empty streets safety becomes an important factor.

The resurgence of CBD living, a counter trend to the depopulation of the inner city in the 60’s and 70’s, has breathed new life into many central locations. However, very careful consideration must be given to locations with high numbers of vacant shops, offices and empty blocks.

Before deciding on what area of the CBD to locate in, it is necessary to identify the pulling power of the whole CBD. The retail pull of the CBD is due to the complimentary mix of activities it contains. You often find a large number of small speciality stores amongst the more familiar multiple retailers. These create a cumulative pulling power which may extend far beyond the metropolitan region.

Within the CBD there are a number traffic generators; large office blocks, Government buildings, Retail hubs, car parks all draw and generate traffic. If your retail business is located outside of the flows generated by these then it will have shorter hours, high and low sales peaks during the day and deep lulls of inactivity.

The pulling power of the CBD depends on its constituents and the pulling power of rival centres in other parts of the city and the transport infrastructure that serves it. Identify the main corridors into the CBD and the "landing zones" of commuters. Check out the impact of peak hour traffic flows, how people scatter through the CBD and the streets they use. Do this not only for weekdays but also weekends and holidays.

Clearly, it is essential to weigh the pros and cons of a CBD location. Shorter trading hours and fewer trading days than suburban retailers may be balanced by customers on weekends and holidays. You may be subject to local trading laws which may restrict your opening times. Your peak times will be based on the needs of the people in the area. These can result in tremendous demand during lunchtimes and during the commuter hours as people rush to and from work. Also, as recent rail disruptions have shown, CBD retailers can be adversely affected by industrial action or poor weather.

However, the sheer weight of numbers means that for the right retail business the CBD can be a gold mine. But be prepared, CBD retail operations in the CBD are very different from in the suburbs.