1. REITs Online ... Mack-Cali Gets It. ... For a bit of fun this week, I decided to test how quickly three large REITS would respond to an inquiry for space. I imagined that I was a corporate real estate director needing to relocate a branch office. So I sent e-mail to three large REITs outlining space requirements in Denver (Equity Office), Boston (Boston Properties) and New Jersey (Mack-Cali).

Equity Office touts itself as "The Nation's Largest Public Office Building Company," although it's not immediately clear how you would look for available space at their web site. If you click "Portfolio," you'll eventually drill down to a list of properties by city and, for many buildings, a name, e-mail address and telephone number for "Leasing Information." But sending a bunch of e-mails to individual buildings seemed pretty inefficient, so I clicked "Feedback" and filled out a rather clunky form indicating that I wanted to know whom to contact for space in Denver, CO. I sent the form on Thursday, August 20 and still had not received a reply by Wednesday, August 26.

Next, I visited Boston Properties, a REIT with buildings in the Northeast and West. From the home page, again, it's not immediately apparent where to look for space available. So I clicked "Property Portfolio," which eventually brought up maps of various markets with hyperlinks to individual properties, but no contact information such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses. So I went back to the home page and clicked "Contact Us," filled out a form and submitted it, asking for information on leasing opportunities in Boston. I submitted the form on Saturday, August 22, and still had not received a reply by Wednesday, August 26.

Finally, I went to Mack-Cali, a REIT with holdings in the Northeast, Southwest and West. It's not immediately apparent whom to contact for space available (Does this sound familiar?). So I clicked "Properties" and drilled down geographically to look at various properties in their portfolio. Properties located in the Northeast did have fairly complete information, including a map, picture and floor plans. I ended up at the Mack-Cali Corporate Center in Parsippany, NJ. If you click the "More Information" icon next to each property, you bring up a form which asks for contact information and your specific requirement. And each property included an e-mail address and phone number, although the e-mail address never changed, leasing@mack-cali.com. So I submitted the form and also sent an e-mail describing a 5,000 s.f. requirement in northern New Jersey, on Saturday, August 22. Bright and early Monday morning (6:30 a.m. Pacific) Ed Guiltinan, Leasing Manager responded to my e-mail by telephone. Mack-Cali has an organized system with Ed handling all the incoming e-mail inquiries and farming them out to the appropriate person. Bravo! That's good customer service.

2. PikeNet 98 Conference. ... On September 10-12, I'll be presenting PikeNet 98, "Commercial Real Estate Internet Strategies," in San Francisco. ... Featured speakers include Dennis DeAndre of LoopNet, Andy Florance of Realty Information Group, Scott Williams of Grubb & Ellis, Craig Severance of AMB, John Shields of RREEF and Mike Mueller of AllApartments. ... The conference is aimed at those with Internet policy and implementation responsibilities, and there is limited room for more attendees. .... You'll find complete conference information under the PikeNet 98 hyperlink on the Billboard on the home page. ... If you would like to register, please send e-mail me.

3. Web Success--Tokai Bank Gets Digital. ... Ralph Campbell, a credit officer with Tokai Bank of California in Encinitas, recently commented on the importance of e-mail and file transfers for loan packages. ... According to Campbell, "We are receiving more and more profit and loss and balance sheets via Internet e-mail. In some instances we are using the same software that the owner/developer or property manager is using. This data can then be readily compiled and printed into the various reporting formats that we need for loan compliance and third party auditing purposes."

"We use various software formats including Winfast spreadsheets, Lotus 123, MS Office, and my favorite Excel. ... We had the controller of a large development company bring in the software that they were using. ... We are attempting to do the same thing with the M.A.I. appraisers that we utilize. It is our hope that we can receive their Argus forecasts via e-mail prior to the appraisal being completed and submitted to us so we will have a preliminary indication of project value."

Do you have a Web Success story? Send me e-mail. ... For past Web Success stories, use the following URL:

http://www.pikenet.com/pike?func=WebSuccess08

4. Knowledge Base--Company Info at Quicken.com. ... Need to research a publicly traded company? ... You'll find charts, news, financials, SEC filings and more in Quicken.com's terrific Investment Department. You'll also find information from hundreds of different print sources, including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine and Business Week. ... Go to Quicken.com or use the step-by-step instructions in the PikeNet Knowledge Base (top of home page) under the Financial Research section. The URL below will take you straight there:

http://www.pikenet.com/pike?func=showPublicPage&page=
questions/questions/question082

5. Sponsor a Dispatch! ... Each week the PikeNet Dispatch is sent to over 5,600 real estate practitioners. ... As a Dispatch Sponsor, your URL is displayed at the beginning of the newsletter and a descriptive paragraph of your service or product follows in the body of the e-mail. ... It's a great way to reach savvy professionals. ... For full details, click the online "Media Kit" under the Billboard on the home page or use the hyperlink below:

http://www.pikenet.com/advertising/advertising.html

--Peter Pike