Silicon Valley Nonprofit to Publish On-line Journal of Real Estate Solutions

LOS GATOS, CA-Internet startup RealCentric continues to ingrain itself into the tenant side of the commercial real estate industry. The locally-based company that helps corporate real estate managers and others find, lease and outfit office space is enhancing its Web site with an on-line journal written and edited by corporate real estate managers.

The publication is the new official journal of CENTRE i, the Center for Real Estate Innovation, RealCentric’s non-profit research and education arm. The journal’s content, which went live yesterday, is being guided by a board of dditors representing 40 multinational corporations. Articles will focus on general topics such as implementing high performance workplaces, and on more specific subjects like successfully negotiating with building owners in India. “And the expert perspectives will be current–not six to nine months old as is the case with traditional print journals,” says the publication’s editor-in-chief, Sally K. Mertens, the current executive director of CENTRE i and the former executive vice president of NACORE’s Institute for Corporate Real Estate.

The free journal will be published continuously on the RealCentric Web site. Articles are being solicited through a “request for papers” process. With the “global executive-on-the-go” as the target audience, Mertens says all papers will go through a blind review process by the board of editors “to ensure that only the most accurate and highest quality articles will be published.”

The board of editors reads like a who’s who of largest users in commercial real estate, including Microsoft, Mazda Motors, Sun Microsystems, FleetBank, Qwest, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Mobil/Exxon, Oracle and a dozen others. Authors of articles included in this week’s launch include executives from the corporate real estate divisions of Microsoft and BancOne, as well as articles from executives of RealCentric and CENTRE i.