Cape Coral, Fla., Saves Money With Online Database for Commercial Properties

As businesses shuffle from building to building in a given year, keeping track of occupancies can get tricky and costly.

That used to be the case in Cape Coral, Fla., which had been paying $30,000 a year on a tool that city officials said produced inaccurate results. City officials urged commercial brokers to put available properties into the free tool. Few complied, and those who did rarely posted updates, which forced city officials to have to hunt down the data for interested parties.

"We could not get our arms around it," said Audie Lewis, business recruitment specialist for the city.

Now the city’s Economic Development Office (EDO) has moved to a different model to track available commercial properties in the city. EDO recently announced a subscription to CoStar http://www.costar.com/ , a national online company that tracks commercial properties for realtors and other subscribers. In a joint membership with the Community Redevelopment Area, the city only pays $230 a month, which means it saves about $27,000 a year.

By Russell Nichols, Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/767989