Mixed Use Development Construction and Ongoing Impacts

Hello and thank you for posting!

1. Is there anything else I would need to do to account for the impact of construction?

This is great information to have to model a construction impact! Construction can sometimes have the extra wrinkle when it comes to the locality and compensation of employment. It would be helpful to ask the client if the construction workers will be employed via the local workforce or will they be coming in from outside of the region. Do these construction workers spend their compensation like normal residents or do they receive a stipend or per diem amount for personal spending (temporary rent?, food, etc.). Having more information on how much spending these construction workers contribute to the economy would make the analysis that much more accurate. 

2. What are the sectors I need to use for these kinds of developments? Do they differ between the different kinds of housing developments?

Construction sectors range from Sector 52-64. Unlike the rest of our sectors, construction sectors bridge to Consensus Descriptions instead of NAICS codes. Please find the bridge between the Census Descriptions and IMPLAN Construction Sectors here to help identify the best sector. 

3. If they come from inside the study area how does the process differ from if they are coming from within it as far as putting together an activity?

If they come from inside the region they only create an impact through their purchase of the new housing (which is largely captured in the construction impact of the housing). If wanted to capture any additional impacts from these purchases, it would be best to have information on the revenue generated in the real estate industry. If they are new to the region, they also bring additional spending. You can model new spending using a Labor Income Change or Household Income Change Activity. The key difference is that a Labor Income Change is a lump sum of income for the region (to local workers in any income range), but a Household Income Change requires specification of the income group that will be seeing a change in income. Find more information on the difference in definition of "Labor Income" and "Household Income" here.

4. Office: Another industry change event? Industry Sales input being Labor dollars (I'd like to understand a bit more about why that is the case if I am correct here)?

When creating an Industry Change Activity, you can fill-in information for the following components: Industry Sales, Employment, Employee Compensation, and Proprietor Income.

You have the choice to enter as much of this information as you like, but you need at least one input and IMPLAN can estimate the rest. Industry Sales should be Sales Revenue or Value of Production. If you have Labor dollars, that can be used too - either as your initial input if you don't have Industry Sales, or as a customization after you've entered Industry Sales. Labor dollars should be appropriately separated into Employee Compensation and Proprietor Income. 

5. For both retail and Office, do I need to alter anything about the input for proprietor income?

Proprietor Income (PI) is compensation for self-employed owners. This is not a great value to start with to estimate the other components (the best value to start with is Industry Sales, Employee Compensation or Employment, in that order), but if you have information on PI, you should edit the auto-estimated PI with what you know. Often users may know that there are no proprietors because the establishment is corporately own. In this case the PI would be zeroed out completely. 

6. Parking structure impact:
Another Industry change where the Industry sales is just whatever projected income they have for the structures? 

I'll note here it is important to keep the construction and operation of all these establishments and structures as separate Activities. For construction, you'll always want to use a construction sector. Because operations is ongoing it usually makes sense to report the results separately. 
To model the impact of the operations of the parking structure, you are exactly right - use projected income for Industry Sales.

Your plan for reporting your results sounds on point to me. Ultimately, its best to base your approach for reporting results on your audience and what they are most interested in.

Thank you,

Maria