Location Intelligence Co-location Archetypes
TopicFrom the Woodfine Projects
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.
The Location Intelligence platform identifies retail and commercial gravity through three co-location archetypes: Retail Centres (PRO), Urban Fringe (VWH), and Commuter (PKS). Each archetype describes a distinct clustering pattern that reflects a different type of commercial activity and a different relationship to the surrounding urban geography.
The three-letter codes were ratified on 1 June 2026.
[edit]The three archetypes
| Code | Name | Anchor type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| PRO | Retail Centres | Grocery hypermarket with hardware and at least one of: price club, lifestyle, or electronics | Live — T1/T2/T3 co-location pipeline |
| VWH | Urban Fringe | Hardware + trade-supply ecosystem (MRO, tool rental, builders merchant, auto parts) | Live — 6,368 clusters (T1=852 / T2=1,327 / T3=4,189) |
| PKS | Commuter | Regional transit anchor (airport, rail, bus) + park-and-ride + car rental/hotel enrichment | Live — 6,953 clusters (T1=691 / T2=2,658 / T3=3,604) |
PRO is the base map product — the foundation of the site-selection dataset. VWH and PKS are overlay archetypes that identify adjacent market structures not captured by grocery-anchored clustering.
[edit]PRO — Retail Centres
PRO clusters represent grocery-anchored commercial co-locations at three scales. The pipeline groups anchor-category retail locations that fall within a defined span distance, then assigns each group to one of three tiers based on anchor composition.
[edit]Tier definitions
T1 — Regional: A cluster containing a grocery hypermarket and a hardware retailer, plus at least one of a price club, lifestyle retailer, or electronics retailer. Alternatively: four or more anchor-category retailers in a tight cluster (span ≤ 1 km), or three or more anchors in any tight cluster.
T2 — District: A cluster containing a grocery hypermarket and a hardware retailer, with a span no greater than 2.5 km.
T3 — Local: All remaining anchor pairs that do not qualify for T1 or T2.
[edit]Current dataset (Phase 23 + Change B, 28 May 2026)
| Tier | Clusters | Countries |
|---|---|---|
| T1 | 1,746 | 17 |
| T2 | 2,726 | 17 |
| T3 | 2,021 | 17 |
| Total | 6,493 |
The dataset covers 17 display countries across North America and Europe. The T2 span boundary was set to 2.5 km in the Change B rebuild, tightening the T2 boundary relative to earlier phases.
[edit]VWH — Urban Fringe
VWH clusters identify concentrations of hardware and industrial-supply retailers in the absence of grocery anchors. These sites occupy the urban fringe — locations between 5 and 80 km from a major metro centre — and tend to cluster around highway interchanges in areas with adjacent industrial landuse.
[edit]Definition
A VWH candidate is a location where one or more hardware retailers are present, no grocery hypermarket is within the cluster span, and the site sits within metro-distance 5–80 km. The typical built form is a 3–6 story multi-storey warehouse or light-manufacturing building, distinct from the one-storey big-box format of the retail park.
VWH locations serve trades contractors, light-manufacturing operators, and just-in-time logistics tenants — not general retail consumers.
[edit]Co-location signals
Essential:
| Signal | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Highway interchange ≤ 2 km | Truck ingress and egress |
| Population ≥ 300,000 within 30-minute drive | Manufacturing and logistics labour |
| Industrial landuse adjacent | Zoning compatibility |
Significant:
| Signal | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Air cargo airport ≤ 20 km | Electronics and components, rapid replenishment |
| Freight rail ≤ 2 km | Just-in-time component delivery |
| Transit corridor ≤ 500 m | Workforce access |
Disqualifying: Dense residential immediately adjacent; flood plain; heritage conservation zone; location inside a PRO cluster.
[edit]Production results (11 June 2026)
The VWH pipeline is production-grade. Hardware stores (10,338 locations, 45 chains) were profiled as proxy anchors; DBSCAN was run on trade-supply POIs without the hardware anchor (held-out validation); tier rules use group-collapse logic validated at 73.4% hardware co-location on T1+T2 clusters (acceptance threshold: 55%).
| Country | Clusters |
|---|---|
| United States | 3,167 |
| Germany | 648 |
| United Kingdom | 543 |
| Canada | 506 |
| France | 420 |
| Netherlands | 240 |
| Italy | 226 |
| Poland | 171 |
| Total (17 countries) | 6,368 |
Tier distribution: T1 (Full Trade Hub) = 852 (13.4%), T2 (Established) = 1,327 (20.8%), T3 (Emerging / Thin) = 4,189 (65.8%). T3-heavy distribution is expected: full trade hubs combining MRO, tool rental, builders merchant, and auto parts are legitimately rare.
A retail_contamination flag marks clusters where a grocery hypermarket lies within 1 km
of the centroid (3,048 clusters; 47.9%). These are dual-use commercial parks — valid VWH
co-locations that also include grocery retail.
[edit]PKS — Commuter
PKS clusters identify commercial concentrations near regional airports and intercity train stations that sit in a Commuter belt 15–150 km from a major metro centre. The defining demand pattern is park-and-fly or park-and-train travel: residents of a Regional Market drive to a transit node, park, and travel to the Metro Market.
[edit]Definition
A PKS candidate is a regional transit node — airport or intercity train station — at metro distance 15–150 km. Nodes within 15 km of the metro centre are classified as suburban rather than regional; nodes beyond 150 km are considered standalone markets with a separate metro relationship.
The defining commercial signal at a PKS location is car rental. Auto parts, fuel stations, quick-service restaurants, and convenience stores are secondary signals.
[edit]Co-location signals
Essential:
| Signal | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Regional transit anchor ≤ 3 km | Airport or intercity station with direct metro service |
| Metro isolation 15–150 km | Defines the regional relationship |
| T1 or T2 cluster ≤ 10 km | Same population generates parking demand |
| Regional population ≥ 150,000 | Minimum demand for multi-storey parking |
Significant:
| Signal | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Car rental ≤ 1 km | Arriving travellers require transport |
| Hotel cluster ≤ 500 m | Business travel and multi-day parking |
| Second transit mode ≤ 5 km | Multi-modal integration |
Disqualifying: Major hub within 15 km; population under 100,000; no direct metro service.
[edit]Production results (11 June 2026)
The PKS pipeline is production-grade. Park-and-ride records (23,117 locations) serve as the primary geographic anchor — actual car→transit transition points distributed independently of rail network geometry. Transit modes are enrichment signals; car rental and hotel presence define commercial maturity. Tier rules use mode-group collapse (intercity_rail + commuter_rail collapse to the RAIL group, preventing artificial bimodality inflation).
| Tier | Clusters | % | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 (Regional Hub) | 691 | 9.9% | Multi-modal + full commercial ecosystem |
| T2 (Transit Interchange) | 2,658 | 38.2% | Transit + at least one commercial signal |
| T3 (Transit Node) | 3,604 | 51.9% | Transit present; commercial opportunity |
| Total | 6,953 |
Commercial enrichment: car rental chains (hertz-eu, avis-eu, europcar-eu, sixt-eu, and others) and hotel chains (ibis-eu, premier-inn-gb, holiday-inn-express-us, and others) are all ingested and active in the production build.
[edit]Major hub filter
Airports with a T1 PRO cluster within 5 km 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 LAX, JFK, LHR, and CDG.
[edit]Future enhancements
- Airport passenger volume data (CAPA or IATA) to replace the T1-adjacency hub proxy with a direct traffic-based classifier
- Parking operator directory: Q-Park, APCOA, NCP, Indigo/Vinci (EU); SP+ (US)
[edit]Map integration
VWH and PKS appear as overlay layers under the ★ Regional Markets section in the layer control panel.
VWH toggle — displays orange dots at Urban Fringe candidate locations. When active, cluster bubbles fade to 10% opacity to reduce visual interference.
PKS toggle — displays teal dots at integrated candidates (T1/T2 cluster within 10 km) and grey dots at standalone candidates. The same 10% bubble fade applies.
Both layers persist across view transitions — the fade state is maintained when switching between the Retail View and the BentoBox market detail panel.
[edit]See also
- Co-location Methodology — the anchor-composition scoring that drives PRO tier assignment
- Co-location Ranking System — the five-rank commercial density index that ranks PRO clusters
- Regional Markets Intelligence System — the 400-market ranking built on PRO cluster data
- Top 400 Regional Markets — North America — ranked list of suburban-regional PRO markets in NA
- Top 400 Regional Markets — Europe — ranked list of suburban-regional PRO markets in EU
- O-D Catchment Methodology — how catchment zones are measured around each cluster centroid
[edit]Data Sources
Map and location data © OpenStreetMap contributors / ODbL.