“As an economist, I spend a lot of time in various datasets researching what’s best for my customers, and I can tell you that Placer’s near real-time data is a competitive advantage for us. There’s simply no better way to learn about how people live, move, and interact with the physical world around them than with Placer. It’s brought our customer insights to a whole new level.”

~ Jerry Hoffman, Founder & President, Hoffman Strategy Group

The Challenge

Building a Co-Living / Co-Working Space Outside Salt Lake City, UT

Ogden, UT was one of the 5 cities chosen recently for Common’s Remote Work Hub initiative, a project whose aim is to develop co-working and co-living spaces in support of the recent increase in work from home (WFH), and in workers moving to smaller cities. With little external guidance on the redevelopment of the “Electric Alley” project, other than to create spaces that offer ways for residents to connect and work productively, the project developers solicited the help of Hoffman Strategy Group to determine:
Is there enough traffic in Ogden to support a transit-oriented development that includes co-working / co-living?
What’s the best unit mix and achievable rent for the new development?

A strong customer of Placer, Jerry Hoffman of Hoffman Strategy Group used mobile location and resident data to answer these questions.

‍The Solution

Placer Data Shows Many Ogden Workers Commute to Salt Lake City

To understand how many workers lived in Ogden and commuted to Salt Lake City each day, Jerry geo-fenced the Ogden train platform and looked at the work locations of train passengers along the Wasatch Front. He confirmed three key things:

Weekly commuters using the train for work outside Ogden totals 1.2k-3k, a large population, especially during the COVID recovery.

These commuters work throughout the Wasatch Front, in tech hubs that support remote work like Lehi, UT and northern Salt Lake City.
Many of the residents of Ogden that work outside the city (the candidates  for a co-working and co-living development) also use the train to begin travel outside of Utah. This indicates that Ogden is close enough to the Salt Lake City airport for remote workers to go to other locations, an important point for attracting a population with the flexibility to work from home.

Learn more about Favorite Places

Having proven that Ogden is a city with a high volume of commuters, and possible work from home employees, Jerry explored the best unit mix for the development using demographic and psychographic data.

Demographic Data Suggests Studio and 1 Bedrooms + Offices Are Best

Looking at 10 and 25 minute drive times to the Ogden train station, the Hoffman team identified the psychographic groups most likely to live and work at the project, then looked at their prevalence in the area and their unique characteristics.  The largest psychographic segment within a 10 minute  drive was the “singles and starters,” defined by Experian’s Mosaic as “young singles starting out and some starter families living a city lifestyle,” a strong indicator of alignment with a co-living / co-working development.

Learn more about Audience Profile

Demographic and market data was similarly promising. Placer showed that the area around the “Electric Alley” development site has 5 and 10 year projected growth in incomes and in the age range (22-29) in line with the development planned. Market research also suggested a need for additional, smaller housing to serve that demographic. Given the prevalence of young, childless professionals in the vicinity of the development, and the projected growth in that category, Hoffman recommended smaller units (studio and one bedroom) at the Electric Alley development.

The Outcome

SUCCESS: Live-Work Changes Support Studio and One Bedroom Units, Each With an Office

With foot traffic, demographic, and psychographic data in hand, Hoffman confirmed the strength of the transit-oriented Electric Alley project and its focus on young, tech-savvy professionals currently commuting via train along the Wasatch Front. Further, the Hoffman team identified that the best unit mix and the most achievable rents for the childless demographic most likely to live and work at Electric Alley were studio and one bedroom units, each with an office. This project is now underway.

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