E-mail
Space Available Overload... In the aftermath of the World Trade
Center collapse, hundreds of tenants are scrambling to find millions
of square feet for short and long-term space. Naturally
online listing services will have difficulty tracking space available
in such a dynamic market. So
a huge amount of e-mail is flying back and forth between owners,
brokers and tenants.  To
simplify the exchange of this information, Jeff
Hipschman, Studley's EVP/CIO, is trying to build a consensus
among NYC service providers to use a standard subject line. For example, "Space Available -
address, city/state, square footage, floors, asking rent, comments." A typical subject line might read as
follows: "Space Available - 123 Broadway, NY/NY, 10,000sf, 10-11,
$45, immediately available." (Studley, which had
a Downtown office on the 86th Floor of One World Trade Center, the
North Tower, sadly lost three people.)
This
raises the perennial issue of data standards for commercial real estate. Could
the industry ever agree to a standard data format that might enable
you to simply extract space available information directly off another
person's server? Or will
human intervention always be required to filter such complex data? Is there a proper combination of the
two methods? By coincidence, both the Data
Consortium and TheREALM announced
progress last week in developing standard XML tags for exchanging information
between different real estate applications. So
stay tuned.
 REBNY,
the Real Estate Board of New York,
has published strong ethical standards post-WTC tragedy. Owners should make deals "based
on market conditions as they were immediately preceding September 11th." Not "unrealistic asking prices," but
rents "actually achieved." And
brokers should "waive usual commissions and fees" for displaced
tenants for six-to-twelve-month leases. "Any
member owner, firm or broker found to be taking advantage of this terrible
tragedy will be expelled from the Real Estate Board." ... In
addition to the online listing services mentioned in the September
18 Dispatch, Offices2Share and Sublease.com are
also pledging NYC revenues to the relief effort.
--Peter
Pike / ppike@pikenet.com |
