North American Real Estate Review NARER.COM BULLETIN March, 2000, Vol.3. No. 1 "Sent to over 4,700 commercial real estate professionals." List Moderator: Forbes J. Rutherford rutherford@narer.com Supported by: Rutherford International Publisher of the North American Real Estate Review http://www.narer.com The NARER Bulletin is a sampling of information available on the North American Real Estate Review’s web site. Launched in 1995, NARER.COM began as a moderated on-line real estate conference of timely and relevant issues for the real estate and finance professional. NARER.COM has reached the status of becoming one of the top 200 most visited commercial real estate web sites on the Net. Is your company linked to the NARER portal? CONTENTS: Press Release: B2B Commercial Real Estate Trade Market To Be Launched Career Posting System: Job List Service Available Wanted - Director Corporate Planning & Strategy: Acquisitor and Capital Market Strategist - Toronto, Canada USA: Selected Links to Unique Real Estate Commentary Broker Network: Seeking Elite International Real Estate Investment Brokers Bulletin Sponsor: ICI-WEB — Property Presentation Software and Application Service Provider Bulletin Sponsorship ***Canceling and Subscription*** Press Release: NARER.com merging with REmatrix.com - A B2B Commercial Real Estate Vertical Market Portal Toronto (February 23, 2000) Infobahn Communications Inc., owner of the North American Real Estate Review, is pleased to announce the development and launch of "REmatrix.com," in June 2000. REmatrix leverages the interactive features and global reach of the Internet to create a real estate focused multinational, targeted business-to-business vertical market. REmatrix will aggregate the international commercial real estate community on a single manageable Portal web page, and in so doing, become the first B2B (Business to Business) commercial real estate vertical trade portal . Having evolved from the concepts pioneered by the North American Real Estate Review (NARER.COM), REmatrix will be truly international in its scope of content and services. Described as a "metamediary" within Internet development circles, REmatrix offers a combination of services such as content and management tools, which will position the Portal as an integral part of the user's business process. It will offer real estate professionals the ability to communicate, to learn, to transact, to invest, and to manage their business processes with improved efficiency. Designed to be a "one-stop enterprise solutions, transactional and knowledge management aggregator," REmatrix is the first commercial real estate portal to establish itself as an online vertical market hub. The REmatrix site is built on a foundation of content, community, commerce and enterprise solution software. REmatrix will offer its audience a variety of features including superior editorial content, white papers by industry leaders, access to enterprise management software, an online marketplace, a career center, a property syndication clearinghouse, a property and portfolio marketing service, an exclusive investment broker network, and a commercial mortgage placement and disposal system. This "affinity" based site will attract advisors, buyers and sellers from around the world by catering to individuals with similar professional interests, providing the best value for their time on the Web. To become the portal of choice for the commercial real estate industry, REmatrix is finalizing strategic relationships with several leading real estate software vendors, to offer web enabled access to a variety of "best of breed enterprise management tools." The software will be offered in an Application Service Provider framework. (ASP's lease software access, rather than sell the system. This offers substantial cost saving benefits to Tier Two and Three management and construction companies, that desire the associated cost and service efficiencies management software offers, but without the related system costs. A unique feature, which distinguishes REmatrix as the best value provider to its portal members, is its "conceptual based" meta-search engine agent software. The REmatrix "Smart" engine may be tasked to migrate through any number of property listing databases, identifying listings based on conceptual parameters, rather than HTML word recognition. As well, users are able to set the engine to electronically notify them when their search specification is posted to the Web. Large property owners and commercial real estate brokerage services should take note of this feature, as it offers exceptional lead generation possibilities. We continue to pursue alliances with leading content, service and software providers on the Internet, and are willing to transfer aspects of our technology to allied partners. By partnering, REmatrix is able to reach an international community of millions, and still cater to each individual member's most specific needs. For more information on REmatrix, please contact us at REmatrix@narer.com Affiliation with NARER.COM's Real Estate Job Posting System Rutherford & Company (www.rutherfordinternational.com) an executive search firm specializing in real estate, is pleased to announce its sponsorship of NARER.COM's Web-based Career Advertising System. This targeted advertising methodology is designed to minimize the cost of staffing positions where advertising might suffice. Positions are advertised in the NARER.COM's Career Registry, and receives over 500 unique visits per day from various real estate on-line job seekers. Real Estate Executive Search: Director Corporate Planning & Strategy: Acquisitor and Capital Market Strategist - Toronto, Canada The candidate, a self-motivated lateral thinker, will be required to exercise clear judgement in the formation and inclusion of "assumptions" used in structuring M&A models; strategic planning; and macro assessment of capital and property markets. Incumbent will participate in structuring and implementing corporate initiatives, which lead to corporate and/or asset acquisitions, Find further information at www.rutherfordinternational.com USA: Selected Links to Unique Real Estate Commentary Real Estate Investors Should Stand Firm Real estate investments will experience a great deal of short-term volatility, but real estate fundamentals are the best they have been in years. So says the 2000 forecast by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Company. Full Story: http://realtytimes.com/rtnews/rtcpages/19991109_investors.htm Location, Location, Location? Not Anymore! If the Internet garners even five percent of retail sales across all categories, it would put tremendous pressure on "bricks-and-mortar" retailers. Last year's Internet sales were estimated at just one half of one percent of total retail business, but projections are for U.S. online retail to hit seven percent of total retail sales by 2004 ($184 Billion). This would constitute a quarter of all the growth in retail sales during the next five years, and much more in certain categories. Full Story: http://www.cool-companies.org Is Industrial/Office Space Reaching Overkill? The tide may be turning in both the industrial and office real estate sectors, with supply outpacing demand and construction either slowing or needing to slow. Full Story: http://realtytimes.com/rtnews/rtcpages/20000113_iospace.htm E-Commerce Could Reduce Demand by Up To Three Billion Square Feet! According to calculations by the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, current Internet business trends could reduce the demand for commercial space by up to three billion square feet between 1997 and 2007 - along with all the lighting, heating and cooling that goes with it. That could mean an average reduction in new building construction of 300 million square feet per year - 20 percent of projected new commercial space. Full Story: http://www.cool-companies.org Seeking Top International Real Estate Investment Brokers Rutherford and Company has been retained to compile a list of elite real estate investment brokers throughout North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. Candidates will be assessed by a number of factors, including business volumes, deal size and complexity, client satisfaction, market knowledge, abstract reasoning and Internet acumen. While remaining with their present companies, the successful candidates will be invited to become members of a Broker Centered Electronic Communications Network (ECN) or Roundtable of like professionals. Members within this network, will be able to interact privately via the Net, and access an exclusive international property and portfolio listing service for marketing their investment opportunities. Prospective candidates should send their CV to or contact Forbes Rutherford of Rutherford and Company at "rutherford@narer.com" or visit our web site at "www.rutherfordinternational.com". Bulletin Sponsor:ICI-WEB — Property Presentation Software and Application Service Provider Whether you are large or small property manager/owner, Infobahn Communications Inc.'s ICI-WEB Property Presentation software is one of the most effective applications for the distribution of broker and investor property information over the Internet. The software is designed to facilitate and enhance traditional methods of marketing commercial real estate and/or preleasing development projects. For an annual license fee, you may acquire the ICI-WEB software, or offset your Internet overheads, by leasing space on Infobahn's database servers. Output from our servers, may be private labeled to appear as part of your corporate web site. It may also be mirrored on ICI-WEB's International Property Registry. The ICI-WEB ASP solution provides for broad bandwidth technical applications, which will offer prospective tenants and/or purchasers a more comprehensive and interactive information package. ICI-WEB's Property Registry currently provides a basic listing on over 200MM Sq.ft. of commercial properties throughout North America. Basic listings are free, whereas enhanced property information resembling a typical broker's package is available for as little as $180.00 per annum. An example of an enhanced listing, may be seen at http://www.iciweb.org/search/show_bld.cgi?53 . Maintenance of your portfolio information on the ICIWEB system, is self-managing. Property information may be updated through a Web enabled interface or through batch processing using terminal access. You may also import information from an Excel spreadsheet. For further information on ICIWEB, go to http://www.narer.com/iciweb How To Become A Bulletin Sponsor Every six to eight weeks, the NARER Bulletin is sent to over 4,700 commercial real estate professionals. The mailing list was compiled by Rutherford & Company’s research department, and is representative of a substantial percentage of North America’s institutional real estate investment and mortgage lending community. To become a sponsor of the NARER Bulletin, or submit content for publication on the North American Real Estate Review's web site, please contact the publisher at rutherford@narer.com ***Canceling and Subscription*** The NARER Bulletin primarily highlights articles, submissions and conference discussions. The mail list is not for sale. If you do not wish to receive this Bulletin, reply with "Cancel" in the subject field. Had this Bulletin been received indirectly from an associate, and you wish to be added to our mailing list, send an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the Subject area to mailto:rutherford@narer.com "Information Empowerment or Knowledge Management" is the essence and primary driver of the Internet's popularity. The future direction for business, is less about supporting traditional commercial delivery systems, and more about storming the gates with a new paradigm for doing business." Infobahn Communications Inc. © 2000, All Rights Reserved