Location intelligence co-location archetypes

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ status: active
audience: customer-woodfine
bcsc_class: current-fact
language_protocol: PROSE-TOPIC
last_edited: 2026-08-26
last_edited: 2026-09-04
editor: pointsav-engineering
short_description: "Three co-location archetypes — Retail Centres (PRO), Urban Fringe (VWH), and Commuter (PKS) — identifying distinct commercial clustering patterns across 17 countries in North America and Europe."
paired_with: site-selection/location-intelligence-archetypes.es.md
@@ -43,43 +43,47 @@ not captured by grocery-anchored clustering.

PRO clusters represent grocery-anchored commercial co-locations, assigned to
one of four tiers by a predicate-gate test — each tier requires every listed
condition to pass, not an additive score against a threshold.
condition to pass, not an additive score against a threshold. The gate
definitions are set out in full in the
[[catchment-ranking-methodology-v3|catchment ranking methodology]], which is
the canonical statement of the tier logic; what follows summarises what
distinguishes each tier.

### Tier definitions

**Tier 1 — Regional:** Cluster contains (Warehouse AND Hypermarket) or
(Lifestyle AND Hypermarket); ranks in the top 10% of its country by primary
catchment population and top 20% by secondary catchment population; has at
least one regionally classified hospital within the tertiary ring; and is not
dominated by a stronger cluster within a 3.0 km disk radius.
**Tier 1 — Regional:** A Hypermarket anchor paired with a Warehouse or
Lifestyle anchor; catchment population among the highest in its country in
both the primary and secondary zones; a hospital serving a regional catchment
within the civic ring; and no substantial trade-area overlap with a stronger
cluster.

**Tier 2 — District:** Cluster contains a Hypermarket plus Hardware or
Warehouse; ranks in the top quartile of its country by primary catchment
population, and in the top quartile on at least one spend axis (grocery,
hardware, or wholesale); has at least one regional or district hospital
within the tertiary ring.
**Tier 2 — District:** A Hypermarket anchor plus a Hardware or Warehouse
anchor; strong but sub-Regional catchment population, matched by comparable
reach on at least one spend category; a hospital serving at least a
district-level catchment within the civic ring.

**Tier 3 — Local:** Cluster contains Hardware or Warehouse; ranks in the top
half of its country by primary catchment population; has at least one
hospital of any classification within the tertiary ring.
**Tier 3 — Local:** A Hardware or Warehouse anchor; catchment population at
or above the country median; a hospital of any kind within the civic ring.

**Tier 4 — Fringe:** All clusters that do not pass the Tier 1, 2, or 3 gates.

Anchor classes: ALPHA_HYPERMARKET (large-format grocery — Walmart, Target,
Carrefour, Kaufland, Tesco, and other national chains), ALPHA_LIFESTYLE
(IKEA), ALPHA_HARDWARE (Home Depot, Lowe's, Leroy Merlin, and similar), and
ALPHA_WAREHOUSE (Costco, Sam's Club, and similar). Neighbourhood grocery
formats (Lidl, Aldi) are deliberately excluded — their density would produce
false-positive clusters below any useful threshold.
The anchor classes — Hypermarket (large-format grocery), Lifestyle, Hardware,
and Warehouse — are defined in the
[[retail-brand-family-taxonomy|retail brand-family taxonomy]].
Neighbourhood-format grocery chains are deliberately excluded: their density
would generate false-positive clusters rather than genuine anchor
convergence.

### Current dataset
### Dataset shape and coverage

As of the most recent published tier count, the production dataset spans
157 Tier 1, 1,462 Tier 2, 2,081 Tier 3, and 6,513 Tier 4 clusters — 10,213
total after deduplication — across seven headline countries (United States,
Mexico, Spain, Germany, Canada, France, and Great Britain) plus additional
markets not yet broken out individually. Tier boundaries are periodically
re-tuned as anchor-chain coverage and the underlying retail footprint change.
The production dataset is heavily weighted toward the lower tiers. Fringe
clusters outnumber the three qualifying tiers combined, each successive tier
down is materially larger than the one above it, and Regional clusters are a
small fraction of the total. Coverage spans seven headline countries — the
United States, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Canada, France, and Great Britain —
plus additional markets not yet broken out individually. Tier boundaries are
periodically re-tuned as anchor-chain coverage and the underlying retail
footprint change.

---

@@ -125,10 +129,9 @@ heritage conservation zone; location inside a PRO cluster.

### Production status

Urban Fringe classification is production-grade. Hardware stores were profiled as
proxy anchors, and the trade-supply clustering was validated against
held-out hardware-anchor data, with an internally set acceptance threshold
for cluster quality that the production build clears.
Urban Fringe classification is production-grade. Hardware retailers serve as
the profiled proxy anchor, and the trade-supply clustering was validated
before the classification was promoted to production.

The dataset spans thousands of clusters across the 17 display countries,
concentrated most heavily in the United States with meaningful coverage
@@ -141,9 +144,9 @@ T3-heavy distribution is expected — a full trade hub combining MRO, tool
rental, builders merchant, and auto parts is a legitimately rare
combination.

A quality-control flag marks clusters that sit close enough to a grocery
hypermarket to be considered dual-use commercial parks — valid VWH
co-locations that also include grocery retail.
Some VWH clusters sit close enough to a grocery hypermarket to function as
dual-use commercial parks — valid VWH co-locations that also include grocery
retail.

---

@@ -204,21 +207,24 @@ tier combines transit with at least one commercial signal. A larger Transit
Node tier is where transit is present but commercial opportunity remains to
be proven out.

Commercial enrichment draws on major car rental and hotel chains active in
each market, ingested and reflected in the production build.
Commercial enrichment draws on the major car rental and hotel chains active
in each market, reflected in the current dataset.

### Major hub filter

Airports adjacent to a major PRO retail cluster are excluded as likely major
commercial hubs. Major airports generate their own retail gravity and do not
exhibit the park-and-transit pattern. The filter correctly removes hubs such
as LAX, JFK, LHR, and CDG.
commercial hubs. The largest international airports generate their own retail
gravity and do not exhibit the park-and-transit pattern the archetype is
built to find; the adjacency filter removes them.

### Future enhancements
### Planned enhancements

- Airport passenger volume data (CAPA or IATA) to replace the current
The following are planned, not current capability:

- Airport passenger-volume data, intended to replace the current
  adjacency-based hub proxy with a direct traffic-based classifier
- Parking operator directory: Q-Park, APCOA, NCP, Indigo/Vinci (EU); SP+ (US)
- A parking-operator directory covering the major operators active in each
  market

---

@@ -236,8 +242,10 @@ Map and location data © [OpenStreetMap contributors](https://www.openstreetmap.

## See also

- [[co-location-methodology|Co-location Methodology]] — the anchor-composition scoring that drives PRO tier assignment
- [[catchment-ranking-methodology-v3|Catchment Ranking Methodology]] — the canonical statement of the PRO tier gates
- [[co-location-methodology|Co-location Methodology]] — the anchor-composition test that drives PRO tier assignment
- [[co-location-ranking-system|Co-location Ranking System]] — the five-rank commercial density index that ranks PRO clusters
- [[retail-brand-family-taxonomy|Retail Brand-Family Taxonomy]] — the anchor classes referenced throughout
- [[about-regional-markets-system|Regional Markets Intelligence System]] — the 400-market set built on PRO cluster data
- [[atlas-top-400-north-america|Top 400 Regional Markets — North America]] — qualifying set of suburban-regional PRO markets in NA
- [[atlas-top-400-europe|Top 400 Regional Markets — Europe]] — qualifying set of suburban-regional PRO markets in EU