Test how retail, office, hospitality, and homes stack up on one site by starting from a project that already knows all of them. The Mixed Use template loads US-focused layers, commercial and residential usages, parking and landscape flows, and a yield and proforma setup that tracks FAR, parking, and returns. This article covers the imperial version of the Mixed Use template. A metric version is also available. Draw your buildings, assign usages, and see floor area, parking, and value update in Analytics.
Start a project with the Mixed Use template
Pick the Mixed Use template from the Home screen or the new project flow. Giraffe copies the template's layers, usages, flows, analytics, apps, and layout into the new project. The template does not copy geometries or scenarios, so the project starts with an empty map.
To start from the Home screen, click Mixed Use under Start with a template.
OR
To start from the new project flow:
Open the menu and choose New > New Project.
Click Mixed Use in the list of templates.
Learn more about starting from a template in Apply a template.
Layers in the Mixed Use template
The Mixed Use template adds two layer groups to the Layers panel: USA Environmental Layer Pack and Base Map. Both groups are turned on when the project opens.
Base Map
The Base Map group gives the Mixed Use template its street, imagery, and building context. It holds six layers.
Map Labels
Transit Labels
Trees
3D Buildings. This layer hides any building inside your project boundary and fades in as you zoom closer.
Landmark Buildings
Satellite Imagery, at 0% opacity. Raise its opacity in the Layers panel to see the imagery.
USA Environmental Layer Pack
The USA Environmental Layer Pack flags site constraints like flood zones, wetlands, and fault lines early in a feasibility study. It holds four layers.
USA Earthquake Faults
Elevation Contours USA 3DEP
FWS Wetlands Inventory, at 75% opacity
FEMA Flood Hazard Zones FIRMette 2024, at 75% opacity
The USA Environmental Layer Pack is only in the imperial version of the Mixed Use template. The metric version does not include it.
Usages in the Mixed Use template
The Mixed Use template includes 44 usages. A usage sets shared properties, like color, height, and unit mix, for every geometry assigned to it. All values below are the template's starting values. Change any of them in the Usage Editor.
The costs, rents, and prices in the Mixed Use template usages are placeholder values. Check and adjust every cost, rent, and price to match your project's location and local market before you rely on the results.
Learn how usages work in Usages Overview.
Commercial and hospitality usages
The Mixed Use template has five Building usages for commercial and hospitality space. Parking Required is bays per 1,000 ft².
Usage | Levels | Floor to floor | Efficiency | Sell efficiency | Parking Required |
Retail | 1 | 15 ft | 90% | 85% | 2.3 |
Large Format Retail | 1 | 29.5 ft | 95% | 85% | 1.0 |
Commercial | 4 | 12.5 ft | 90% | 85% | 4.0 |
Hotel | 4 | 12.5 ft | 90% | 85% | 1.0 |
Restaurant | 4 | 12.5 ft | 90% | 85% | 3.0 |
Apartment building usages
The Mixed Use template has two apartment building usages. Each one splits its floor area into a mix of unit types, so Analytics can count dwellings, residents, and parking demand.
Residential: 4 levels, 10.5 ft floor to floor, 80% efficiency, 72% sell efficiency. The unit mix is 20.4% studios at 500 ft², 34.6% one-bedrooms at 700 ft², 37% two-bedrooms at 750 ft², and 8% three-bedrooms at 900 ft².
Garden Apartments: 3 levels, 10 ft floor to floor, 90% efficiency, 80% sell efficiency. The unit mix is 25% one-bedrooms at 650 ft², 45% two-bedrooms at 800 ft², and 30% three-bedrooms at 950 ft².
Parking required and residents per unit in each apartment usage:
Unit type | Residential: parking | Residential: residents | Garden Apartments: parking | Garden Apartments: residents |
Studio | 1 | 1 | – | – |
1 bed | 1 | 1.5 | 1 | 1.5 |
2 bed | 1.5 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
3 bed | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
Dwelling usages
The Mixed Use template has six dwelling usages. Each geometry with one of these usages counts as individual homes in Analytics.
Usage | Levels | Floor to floor | Dwellings | Residents | Parking required |
Studio | 1 | 10.5 ft | 1 per level | 1 | 1 |
1 Bedroom | 1 | 10.5 ft | 1 per level | 1.5 | 1 |
2 Bedroom | 1 | 10.5 ft | 1 per level | 2 | 1 |
3 Bedroom | 1 | 10.5 ft | 1 per level | 2.5 | 2 |
4 Bedroom | 1 | 10.5 ft | 1 per level | 2.5 | 2 |
Townhome | 2 | 10 ft | 1 | 2.5 | 2 |
Other building usages
The Mixed Use template has five more Building usages for shared and support space. Parking Required is bays per 1,000 ft².
Community: 1 level, 13 ft floor to floor, 90% efficiency. Parking Required 2.0.
Amenity: 1 level, 13.1 ft floor to floor, 90% efficiency, 85% sell efficiency. Parking Required 3.0.
Core: stair and elevator cores. 1 level, 10.5 ft floor to floor, with no rentable area.
Corridor: shared hallways. 4 levels, 10.5 ft floor to floor, with no rentable area.
Balcony: 1 level, 10.5 ft floor to floor, with no facade and no rentable area.
Parking usages
The Mixed Use template has three parking usages. Parking Provided is bays per 1,000 ft².
Carpark - On Grade: surface parking. Parking Provided 2.65.
Carpark - Multi-Deck: an above-ground parking garage. 10.5 ft floor to floor. Parking Provided 1.86.
Carpark - Underground: a below-grade parking structure. 2 levels, 10 ft floor to floor. Parking Provided 1.86.
Paving, roads, and paths
The Mixed Use template has four usages for hardscape and access.
Road: 24 ft wide with a 3 ft pavement and 25 ft filleted corners.
Path: a 3 ft pavement with 6 ft filleted corners.
Plaza: light gray paving.
Paved Area: mid gray paving.
Landscape usages
The Mixed Use template has nine Landscape usages for open space, water, and trees.
Landscape - Simple: light green planting.
Landscape - Deep Planting: green planting, 0.5 ft tall.
Landscape - Feature Planting: dark green planting, 1 ft tall.
Sports Field: a green playing surface.
Pool: a light blue pool surface.
Detention Basin: a light blue stormwater basin, 5 ft deep.
Tree - Deciduous, Tree - Coniferous, and Tree - Palm: 3D tree models, each with a 13.1 ft canopy radius.
3D massing usages
The Mixed Use template has two 3D usages for context massing.
Context: light gray massing for neighboring buildings. New geometries start at 3 levels with an 11 ft floor to floor.
Generic 3D: plain massing. New geometries start 13.1 ft tall.
Reference and generic usages
The Mixed Use template has eight usages for annotation and general drawing.
Parcel: a red dash-dot outline for property lines.
Envelope: a purple dash-dot outline with a light fill for buildable areas.
Region: a gray dashed outline for marking areas.
Pin: a labeled point.
Leader: a dashed line with an arrow for callouts.
Generic Point, Generic Line, and Generic Polygon: plain geometries with no preset behavior.
Flows in the Mixed Use template
The Mixed Use template includes seven flows for parking, zoning envelopes, and landscape. A flow turns one geometry into a full layout, like a parking garage filled with bays or a park filled with trees. To use one, select a geometry, open Flow Controls in the Properties panel, and pick the flow. Its inputs appear under the flow picker.
Learn how flows work in Flow Overview.
Simple Buildable Envelope flow
The Simple Buildable Envelope flow turns a parcel polygon into a massing of the buildable area, so you can test a design against zoning before you draw buildings. It draws the setback line with the Parcel usage and the massing with the Envelope usage, up to a 65 ft maximum height. Adjust the front, side, and rear setbacks and the maximum height under Flow Controls in the Properties panel.
Parking Bays flow
The USA Parking Bays flow fills a polygon with 18 ft by 9 ft surface parking bays and 19 ft drive aisles, using the Carpark - On Grade usage. Adjust the parking layout under Flow Controls in the Properties panel.
Parking Garage flow
The USA Parking Garage flow turns a polygon into a 3-level structured garage with 18 ft by 9 ft bays and 19 ft drive aisles, using the Carpark - Multi-Deck usage. Adjust the parking layout under Flow Controls in the Properties panel.
Underground Parking flow
The USA Underground Parking flow turns a polygon into a 2-level below-grade garage with 18 ft by 9 ft bays and 19 ft drive aisles, using the Carpark - Underground usage. Adjust the parking layout under Flow Controls in the Properties panel.
Park with Trees flow
The Park with Trees flow turns a polygon into Landscape - Simple planting and scatters 20 Tree - Deciduous trees across it at random, with sizes that vary by up to 20%. Change the tree count and spread under Flow Controls in the Properties panel.
Row of Trees flow
The Row of Trees flow turns a line into a row of evenly spaced Tree - Deciduous trees, with sizes that vary by up to 50%. Change the spacing in the Trees group under Flow Controls in the Properties panel.
Pond with trees flow
The Pond with trees flow turns a polygon into a Detention Basin with rounded edges, ringed by planting and trees for a natural look. Find its inputs under Flow Controls in the Properties panel.
Corner Rounding: sets how much the pond's corners curve.
Grassy Areas: places 50 planting patches around the pond at random.
Analytics in the Mixed Use template
The Mixed Use template adds two tabs to Analytics. The Default tab tracks floor area by use, FAR, parking, and site coverage. The Proforma tab runs from construction cost through to residual land value. Rates like the cap rate and target return are assumptions you can edit. Everything else calculates from your geometries.
The rates, fees, and costs in the Mixed Use proforma are placeholder values. Check and adjust every cost, rate, and assumption to match your project's location and local market before you rely on the results.
Built Form & Yield
The Built Form & Yield category on the Mixed Use Default tab shows how much floor area each use gets and whether parking keeps up.
FSR (FAR): Total GFA divided by site area.
Residential GFA: the floor area of every geometry with dwellings.
Retail GFA: the floor area of Retail and Large Format Retail geometries.
Commercial GFA: the floor area of Commercial, Amenity, and Community geometries.
Hospitality GFA: the floor area of Hotel and Restaurant geometries.
Total GFA: the floor area of every geometry.
Parking provided: the number of parking bays in the layout.
Parking required: bays needed for dwellings plus bays needed for commercial space.
Parking Delta: parking provided as a percentage of parking required.
Site & Landscape
The Site & Landscape category on the Mixed Use Default tab measures how the site is used.
Site area: the project boundary area in ft².
Landscaped Area: the area of every Landscape geometry.
Site coverage: building footprints and hardscape as a percentage of site area.
Tree count: the number of trees in the layout.
Costs
The Costs category in the Mixed Use template shows on both tabs and builds up total project cost.
Hard Cost: each geometry's gross area times its Hard Cost.
Soft cost: 10% of Hard Cost.
Site works: site area times a site works rate.
Contingency: 10% of Hard Cost, Soft cost, and Site works.
Total costs: Hard Cost, Soft cost, Site works, and Contingency added together.
Income
The Income category on the Mixed Use Proforma tab estimates rent and the value it supports.
Potential Apartment Rent: the Dwelling Price of every dwelling, times 12. Enter Dwelling Price as a monthly rent.
Potential Commercial Rent: rent from commercial floor area.
Total Potential Rent: apartment rent plus commercial rent.
Vacancy rate: 5%.
Cap rate: 10%.
Terminal value: Total Potential Rent after vacancy, divided by the Cap rate.
Feasibility
The Feasibility category on the Mixed Use Proforma tab shows what the land is worth at your target return.
Target return: 20%.
Residual land cost: the most you can pay for the land and still hit the Target return, based on Terminal value and Total costs.
Return: Terminal value minus Total costs and Residual land cost.