Visuals
The foot-traffic data
When FDOT announced a 19-month closure of one of the two bridges connecting Tequesta to everywhere south, BusinessFlare® used Placer.ai foot-traffic data to pinpoint exactly which businesses, jobs, and categories were at risk — and where new opportunity would open up.
The Village of Tequesta sits north of Jupiter, connected to everything south by just two bridges: US-1 and Alternate A1A. When FDOT notified the Village it would close the US-1 bridge over the Jupiter Inlet for roughly 19 months beginning in 2023, the Village Manager had four urgent questions and little outside guidance: How badly would local businesses be hurt? Which businesses and jobs were most at risk? What could help them adapt? And did the disruption create any new opportunities?
BusinessFlare® answered those questions with data instead of guesswork. Using Placer.ai aggregated mobile-location analytics — layered with ESRI, Census, Lightcast, CoStar, and MLS sources — the team geofenced the Village, mapped where residents, workers, and visitors actually travel, and quantified how much of each business's customer base crossed the soon-to-close bridge. The work continued past the March 2023 closure with follow-up assessments that measured the real, observed impact.
Roughly 20-25% of overall customer foot traffic to Village businesses came from the south side of the Inlet — the exact area the closure would cut off. Four of the five main shopping centers pulled 20-30% of their visitors from those impacted zip codes, and anchors like Marshall's and Beall's drew 20-30% of their traffic from the south. At the same time, categories that Tequesta residents routinely crossed the bridge for — bars and pubs, dining, and leisure — were a clear opportunity to recapture that spending locally once the bridge closed.
From framing the question, to the Placer.ai method, to measured foot-traffic and economic impact, to a published case study.
Tequesta is a small, higher-income, multigenerational community (median age 55, median home value ~$918,000) whose economy leans heavily on retail along US-1. Most retail jobs are held by non-residents who commute in, and most working residents commute out — nearly all of it crossing the US-1 or Alternate A1A bridges. With the US-1 bridge slated to close for about 19 months, the Village Manager turned to BusinessFlare® for answers no one else could provide.
BusinessFlare® geofenced the Village to study residents, employees, and visitors, then classified the southern feeder zips by how the closure would affect them: Primary (33477, where the US-1 bridge sits), Secondary (33458, home of the remaining A1A bridge), and Tertiary (33408, 33410, 33418, 33478). Placer.ai then quantified how much of each center's and each business's traffic originated in those areas.
Placer data showed 4 of the 5 main shopping centers pulled 20-30% of visitors from impacted southern zips, with the South Side accounting for over 18% of visits to Tequesta Shoppes. Conversely, Tequesta residents made up less than 10% of customers at businesses across the river in Jupiter — the loss ran mostly one direction. The categories residents crossed the bridge for became the recapture opportunity.
The US-1 bridge closed in March 2023, and BusinessFlare® kept measuring. March 2023 Village visits fell 15.5% year-over-year, with some centers down more and Countyline Plaza holding up best (down just ~3%), buffered by Publix and its northern location. Crucially, employee visits rose 7.6% versus the prior-year period — the US-1 bridge had never been a major commuting route, so jobs stayed stable even as discretionary visitors pulled back.
Armed with the data on which businesses were at risk and which categories to promote, BusinessFlare® delivered recommendations to the Village Manager: a communications plan, 'shop local' promotions, staffing adaptations, carpool and park-and-ride strategies, expanded local programming, and campaigns to recapture bars/pubs, dining, and leisure spending. The engagement became a published Placer.ai case study on using mobile-location data to help municipalities navigate unplanned construction.