Compare locations based on nearby amenities

A corporation is looking to open a new regional office space in Portland, Oregon. There are many variables to consider when picking an office location. For example, employees may be more interested working in an office when it is near cafes and restaurants.

In this tutorial, you'll use ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App to create sites for your potential office locations, add a web layer of transit stops, and assess which potential office location has the most desirable nearby amenities.

This tutorial was last tested on February 1, 2026.

Requirements

• ArcGIS organizational account with a Publisher, Facilitator, or Administrator role (see options for software access)
• ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App Advanced
• 1 credit

Compare locations based on nearby amenities

Create a project

You have identified four potential locations for your new regional office. To start your analysis, you'll first create your Business Analyst project and map your sites.

Note:

This workflow uses real-world data and makes reference to existing fitness centers, restaurants, pharmacies, and transit stops. The workflow is for tutorial purposes only and does not reflect any plans, inside knowledge, business relationships or business recommendations with the brands mentioned.

1. Go to Business Analyst Web App.
2. If you are not signed in, click Sign In. Sign in with your ArcGIS organizational account.

   Note:

   If you don't have an organizational account, see options for software access.

   Your account must be licensed to use Business Analyst Web App. If you are the administrator of your organization, you can assign yourself a license. Otherwise, you'll need to contact your administrator for permission.

3. If necessary, on the ribbon, click Home. Click New project.

   

   Note:

   If you are a new user, optionally, review the in-app onboarding experience on the Welcome page, click Continue, and click New project.

4. In the Create project window, for Project name, type Portland office comparisons and add your name or initials. Click Create.

   A message explains that the project is being created. When it finishes, a confirmation message appears.

5. In the confirmation window, check Open project pane on Maps tab as soon as a new project is created and click OK.

   Tip:

   You can alternatively open your project by closing the confirmation window and finding the project under the Projects tab on the Home page.

   The project appears.

6. On the ribbon, confirm that Data source is set to USA. If the project uses a different data source, click the Data source button, search for USA, and click the most recent USA data source.

Create sites

Now that you've made a project, you'll create sites for each of the potential office locations.

1. In the search bar, type 1895 NW Front Ave and choose the result for Portland, Oregon.

   

   The map zooms to the site. A pin appears with a pop-up.

2. On the site's pop-up menu, click Create site.

   

   Next, you'll choose how to measure the area around the pin to define the site. The buffer options include rings, walk times, and drive times. You'll choose walk time.

3. Click the Walk time tab.

   The default measures are 5-, 10- and 15-minute walk times. You expect employees will not want to walk for too long, so you'll use only the 5-minute option.

4. Delete the 10- and 15- minute walk times.

   

   Now you are using a 5-minute walk time buffer for your site.

5. Click Apply.

   The buffer appears on the map with a pop-up with more options.

   

   Next, you'll create 5-minute walk buffers for the other three potential office locations.

6. In the search bar, type 1 SW Columbia St, select the Portland result, and create a site using 5-minute walk times.
7. In the search bar, type 6500 S Macadam Ave, select the Portland result, and create a site using 5-minute walk times.
8. In the search bar, type 2512 SE 25th Ave, select the Portland result, and create a site using 5-minute walk times.

   Your map shows the four office locations, represented as pins, with 5-minute walk times. Each walk time buffer is a site in your Business Analyst Web App project.

   

Add transit stops

One of the most important criteria for determining your ideal office location is the availability of public transportation. You'll add a web layer of transit stops from the curated collection of ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World content in Business Analyst Web App.

1. Click Add data and choose Web maps and layers.

   

   In the Web maps and layers window, you can browse content from your other projects, content shared with you by users in your organization, and content from ArcGIS Living Atlas and ArcGIS Online.

2. In the Explore pane, expand the Living Atlas section and click Show all.
3. In the search field, type transit stops.

   Your search returns an item: World Transit Stops. Next, you'll learn more about this web layer.

4. Click the Data button to view a summary of the data categories used in this layer. Click the Options button and choose Open details pane to learn more.

   

5. Point to the World Transit Stops web layer and click Add to map.

   

   The transit stops are added to the map.

   

   Note:

   You may need to zoom out to see the transit stops as they only draw at smaller scales.

   The Legend windows can be closed if they make it difficult to see the map. To open a legend, on the toolbar to the right of the map, click Legend.

   Now that all the sites and transit information are in the project, you'll clear the map for the upcoming analysis.

6. On the toolbar, click Clear map.

   

   The Clear map window appears.

7. Check the Site layers and World Transit Stops boxes and click Clear.

   The sites and transit stops are removed from the map. They are saved in the project.

Perform nearby analysis

Now that you've mapped your potential office locations and transit stops, you'll explore which location has the most desirable amenities using nearby analysis. The amenities you're evaluating include fitness centers, restaurants, pharmacies, and transit stops. These amenities provide the benefit of convenience for your employees and may contribute to a more compelling workplace environment. You can explore the results to understand which office location has the closest or most amenities available.

1. On the ribbon, click Run analysis and choose Nearby analysis.

   

   You can perform the analysis on recently used sites, sites currently on the map, or sites from any project. You'll use the four potential office locations.

2. In the Nearby analysis pane, click Add sites.

   

3. In the Add sites window, check the box for each of the four Portland-based office locations. Click Apply.

   The four office locations appear on the map.

4. Click Next.
5. In the Nearby analysis pane, click Add point lists.

   

   Point lists are curated collections of points of interest (POI) categories and codes, such as restaurants, health care, parking, and grocery stores. You can perform your analysis using featured point lists, custom point lists, point lists based on web maps and layers, or a new point list.

6. On the Featured point lists tab, check the boxes for Fitness, Restaurants, and Pharmacy.

   Note:

   You'll need to scroll to find all three lists. The tab label includes the count of selected lists.

   

   These featured point lists include amenities that employees can walk to when working at your new regional office.

7. Click the Web layer point lists tab.

   Web layer point lists consist of web maps and layers in your project with point-based sites. You'll use the points in the web layer of transit stops that you previously added.

8. If necessary, expand the Web maps and layers and World Transit Stops sections. Check the stops box.

   

9. Click Apply.

   The results appear on the map. For each of your office locations, symbols represent the POI within the site area.

   

10. Click Next.

    The results summary appears in the Results pane.

    

    The results include the total number of points, points per 1,000 households, and the distance from the nearest point to a site. You'll use these measurements to style the map.

    Note:

    Scroll to the right to see all five of the metrics in the summary.

11. In the Nearby analysis pane, in the Style section, click Points.

    

12. Click the Points with area color map style.

    

    The map updates so that each site area is color-coded. By default, the color-coding represents the distance to the nearest point in miles, illustrating the proximity of the nearest amenity to each office location.

    Next, you'll explore the tabulated results, such as the count of amenities for each office location.

13. In the Results pane, click Site summary table.

    

    The site summary table appears.

    

    Note:

    Scroll to the right to see all of the fields in the summary table.

    Each office location is listed along with the nearby measurements for each type of amenity. You must determine which location is the most desirable based on the amenities available, how close amenities are to the office location, and which amenities are most likely to be desirable to your employees.

    For example, you may decide that the 1 SW Columbia St. location is the best fit for your company because it is close to two fitness centers and a restaurant 0.01 miles away.

    Now that you've made your decision on which office location works best for your company, you can start creating internal memos for employees.

14. In the Results pane, click Point details table.

    This table provides an overview of each business within a site area. You'll export the table so you can share it with others.

    Note:

    Exporting the table costs less than 1 credit.

15. Click Export to Excel.

    The point details are exported to a spreadsheet and downloaded to your computer.

    You can use this spreadsheet to create internal memos about the nearby amenities around the newest office location. It might help to create a buzz of excitement among your employees about the new office.

16. When you finish the analysis, click Save layer.

    

17. In the Save layer window, for Layer name, type Portland office amenities. Click OK.

    The saved layer can be accessed in the project pane in the Nearby analysis layers section.

In this tutorial, you compared potential office locations based on their nearby amenities. First, you created four sites representing your potential office locations and added a web layer of transit stops from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. You then performed a nearby analysis for your four sites using point lists representing fitness centers, pharmacies, restaurants, and transit stops. You styled the map to identify the high-to-low ranking of sites with the closest amenities. After analyzing the tabulated results, you and your team can determine which potential office location has the most desirable amenities and use this and other information to select a final office location.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• Esri Demographics data accessed with ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App. Terms of use.
• World Street Map tile layer sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community
• Gallery card image © 2025 Adobe Stock. All rights reserved.