Site Selection
Strategic site selection, evaluated by the numbers
The right site can transform your business through operational efficiency, market access, and long-term growth. Our site selection combines data-driven market insight into economic indicators and industry clusters, location strategies tailored to your specific needs, and advanced geospatial analytics that assess transportation networks and customer access.
Real estate strategy meets business objectives
PDF takes a holistic approach that integrates real estate strategy with your business objectives, pairing multidisciplinary expertise across real estate and analytics with proven results earned over decades of experience.
A disciplined process, start to signature
Site selection is a search with a method behind it. Here is how we run one.
Define the criteria
We start with how your business actually operates — who your customer is, how they arrive, what your staffing and delivery needs look like, and what has worked or failed at your existing locations. That becomes a written set of requirements we can measure sites against.
Screen the market
We build the full picture of what is available across your target trade areas, including quiet listings and off-market opportunities that never reach the public sites. You see a real inventory, not just what happens to be advertised.
Test the shortlist
Each finalist gets pressure-tested on the things that decide whether a location performs — access and visibility, traffic patterns, zoning and permitted use, competition and co-tenancy, and what the site will realistically cost to occupy.
Negotiate and secure
We take the winning site through letter of intent, terms, and closing or lease execution, and stay in it through due diligence so nothing surfaces late that changes the math.
The factors that decide whether a location performs
A site can look right and still be wrong. These are the variables we work through before recommending anything.
Trade area and demographics
Population, income, daytime employment, and growth trajectory in the rings that actually feed the location — not just the city-wide numbers.
Access and visibility
Traffic counts, ingress and egress, signalization, signage rights, parking ratios, and how easily a customer or truck gets in and back out.
Zoning and entitlements
Permitted use, conditional use requirements, parking and setback rules, and the realistic timeline for any approvals your use will need.
Competition and co-tenancy
Who is already serving this trade area, who is coming, and which neighboring tenants drive traffic to you rather than away from you.
Occupancy economics
Base rent or purchase price against operating expenses, tenant improvement allowance, escalations, and total cost of occupancy over the full term.
Delivery and timing
Condition of the space, what it takes to get open, and whether the site's availability lines up with the date you actually need to be operating.
Questions we get before a search starts
How long does a site selection search take?
It depends on how tight your criteria are and how much inventory your market has. A straightforward search in an active submarket can move quickly; a specialized use, a tight trade area, or a site requiring entitlements takes longer. We give you a realistic timeline up front rather than an optimistic one.
What does representation cost?
Compensation is agreed in writing before we begin, and it varies by assignment. In many lease and purchase transactions the fee is paid by the landlord or seller. We will walk you through exactly how it works for your situation before you commit to anything.
What if the right site isn't listed?
A meaningful share of good sites are never publicly marketed. When the open inventory does not produce the right answer, we go direct to owners in your target area to find out what might trade or lease under the right terms.
Can you help outside the Sacramento region?
Yes. Our home market is Greater Sacramento, and we also work nationally and internationally, coordinating with local expertise wherever your growth plan takes you.
Ready to find your ideal location?
Let the data point you to the right site for your next move.
Talk Site Selection With Us