Product Review - SPACEdirect 2.0

Thought the day of online transactions would never come? The folks of NetStruxr will counter that its here. The firm has created an online vehicle for corporate real estate transactions featuring transaction-management tools designed to enable e-commerce. One of those tools is SPACEdirect, tenant-led transaction software designed to match owners and agents with corporate real estate departments. SPACEdirect supports acquisition and disposition projects for a number of different real estate types including office and retail.

Users of SPACEdirect may register as either a tenant or a real estate provider. After logging in, the user arrives at a personalized homepage with access to an electronic repository of templates and files, a message board containing project updates and lists of contact names and current projects.

To post a space requirement, the prospective tenant completes a process that takes about five minutes. First, the tenant designates the project as an acquisition or disposition, indicates how the space will be used (i.e.: office, R&D) and names the project. The next step is to specify the size of the space required, requested occupancy date, length of the lease and geographic location. Finally, the tenant identifies property attributes and amenities required, such as fiber-optic wiring, signage options and on-site parking.

Each building owner can create parameters to filter postings by requirements--such as size, location and occupancy date. When responding to a requirement, the owner also sees a summary of tenant-submitted information and a profile of the tenant business. While the summary does not name the company, it does provide enough data to qualify the tenant.

The owner may respond by filling out a form listing size, rental rate, rental term and other information. The tenant is notified of responses through the homepage message board, which can also forward responses to outside E-mail addresses. After examining responses, the tenant may enter into negotiations with any or all respondents.

In order to facilitate Web-based negotiations, SPACEdirect allows the tenant to set up an interactive, collaborative conference with the owner. The conferencing feature supports threaded discussions and document posting; it also provides calendar and financial-analysis tools. Once the tenant makes a final leasing decision, the system generates a detailed lease abstract, and with that the software has done its job. Because lease documents are highly specific, the actual lease is composed by the landlord and signed in hard copy, NetStruxr executives state. SPACEdirect has been in use since last January, and NetStruxr rolled out version 2.0 on June 12 of this year. My evaluation took place the following day and I found the software to be almost completely bug-free--a significant achievement for a product that had been out of the gate less than 24 hours. The user interface is straightforward and intuitive, and unread status changes are easy to locate thanks to small stars that appear on section tabs when new information is received.

Additionally, SPACEdirect has several features that are particularly responsive to user needs. For example, the amenities-specification section will tell owners which amenities tenants prefer but will not block an owner's response if a particular property doesn't have the specified amenity, thus preventing unnecessarily narrow distribution of tenant requirements. Another helpful feature is a flowchart that guides users through the E-leasing process by tracking the progress of each project. SPACEdirect also contains links to demographic research on markets nationwide as well as a report-generation feature.

NetStruxr chairman and CEO Greg Williams states that a key benefit to clients is a reduction in the time it takes to complete a transaction. "One of our clients is using SPACEdirect to reduce by half the typical hours it takes to complete a transaction--from 400 hours down to 200," claims Williams.

The company is in the process of closing its third round of funding and plans to be free of capital searches by the end of this year. Exclusive deals are in place with nine corporate clients including Bank of America, IBM and Prudential. "By the end of the year, we'll have 60 organizations in the marketplace, representing somewhere north of one billion sf," Williams reports.