To Map the City’s Retail Health You Need to Walk the Streets

Barcelona and Manhattan, two municipalities with the same population and retail model, share many similarities and a couple of things they can learn from each other.

Comparison of retal ocupancy between Barcelona and Manhattan — Courtesy of Eixos

Municipalities, facing the need to understand the real economic activity of the city, and its retail composition, can’t rely on registration data, they need to do fieldwork and keep updating it.

Eixos, a Catalan firm specialized in retail mapping, has recently published a report on Manhattan and Barcelona.

According to Eixos’ CEO David Nogué, both municipalities share a standard grid model for commercial space and have almost the same population. While Manhattan and Barcelona show a similar healthy occupancy rate, there are a few differences and a couple of lessons that both can learn from each other.

Watch the full interview with David Nogué on Cities of the Future