Thursday, March 30, 2000
INDUSTRY NOTES: REAL ESTATE
CoStar having lots of problems
BY JOHN J. BYCZKOWSKI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
All's not well in cyberspace: It's now been three months since the local commercial real estate community began using the CoStar data library, and the system isn't working as advertised.
CoStar is designed to be a powerful database of every building, every tenant and every lease in Greater Cincinnati's commercial real estate sphere. CoStar also promised that the database would contain photographs of every building.
The cost of the system is steep. The basic price for one terminal is $2,000 a month. Big firms with more brokers get volume discounts, and discounts are also negotiated if companies contribute data to the system. That is seen as a disadvantage for smaller firms, because the per-broker costs for them is higher.
The cost is steep enough that one of the region's biggest brokers, Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, has yet to sign on. Another big firm, Cincinnati Commercial Realtors, only recently opted in.
Design and execution are proving to be two different things. Growing pains are to be expected, but at these prices, local brokers said they expected the system to get good fast, and it's not there yet.
One flaw is that CoStar hasn't grasped the makeup of the region's submarkets, causing buildings to be categorized incorrectly. One broker said there was even a category created to list all those nonexistent Indian Hill industrial properties. “It's being done by people who aren't native Cincinnatians,” the broker said.
The CoStar folks say the system is better than its predecessor — LeaseTrends, which CoStar acquired — and is getting better daily. Eric Sorenson, regional vice president for CoStar, said: “We're giving people a lot more data. Our commitment is accurate real estate data.” The system tracks 6,000 buildings with 300 million square feet. Photographs of 3,000 are already in the system.
In the meantime, there's talk of an alternative. CINDAT is a system that was developed locally a few years ago and holds some promise. It won't be as sophisticated as CoStar, but it could be good enough for most brokers and will cost much less.
Capital building back on market
The GE Capital building in Deerfield Township is an orphan, again.
The former factory outlet center has had many lives. GE resurrected the building by turning it into a call center for its credit card business, and the building has had several owners.
The Brandywine real estate investment trust sold the building about 18 months ago, for $15.5 million, because it was the only building Brandywine owned locally. REITs prefer to own clusters of buildings in one market, but with no other holdings locally, Brandywine bailed.
The buyer was another REIT named HRPT, which had hoped to acquire more properties in the region. But that hasn't happened, so HRPT has put the building back on the market.
GE has another six years on its lease for the 150,000-square-foot building near Paramount's Kings Island.
Got news? Send it to John Byczkowski at johnb@enquirer.com or write him at the Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202, or call 513-768-8377.
Banker, school reformer Clement Buenger dead at 73
Buenger Commission's impact still felt
P&G faulted for lack of info
Delta connectors to buy up to 500 jets
Downtown loses a bit of sole
Gas prices will fall, U.S. says
Dole decides against selling
Suit against Boeing to trial
TRISTATE BUSINESS SUMMARY
INDUSTRY NOTES: REAL ESTATE
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
TRISTATE MARKET SPOTLIGHT
