Las Vegas RealCentric executive offers tips for Internet business ventures

Monday, Aug. 28, 2000 | 11:22 a.m.

A Las Vegas expert says the biggest challenge to establishing a useful Internet site for a business is to stay focused on the original business plan and not let the technologists steer it off course.

Jim Stuart, chief executive officer of RealCentric.com and a self-avowed non-technologist, said he found that out after spending months of trying things that failed before coming up with an Internet site he believes will be functional for both commercial real estate brokers and building owners.

The site was launched in mid-June and by early July, the company signed up 17 commercial property owners representing 75 percent of the square footage available in the Las Vegas Valley. In addition to kicking off office leasing on the Internet in Las Vegas, the company launched sites for Los Angeles; Orange County, Calif.; and Chicago.

Stuart, former managing director of the commercial real estate brokerage Colliers International in Las Vegas, resigned in December to start RealCentric with some California-based management and technical support.

The company is based at the Gibson Business Park in Henderson, but Stuart lists Los Gatos, Calif., as the corporate headquarters because several senior managers are there and it has more credibility as a technology center.

By the end of the year, RealCentric will offer commercial listings for properties in San Diego, Denver, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Dallas, Northern California and Northern Virginia. Ultimately, the company plans to offer listings in 40 to 50 markets.

Stuart said he learned early that the Internet is more of a conduit for business and not a business itself. Using resources in Los Gatos, Stuart attempted to replicate -- and improve -- the process of finding commercial real estate and turning it into a functioning online office for a buyer.

He said he did that by demystifying the real estate acquisition process and finding ways to save time. The site works similarly to residential Internet real estate ventures.

Stuart has negotiated with several suppliers of space -- among them Thomas & Mack Co., American Nevada Corp., Howard Hughes Corp. and Nigro Associates -- to develop a data base of inventory.

Potential buyers can then search the database with a list of requirements and select buildings that meet the criteria. Stuart said buyers are helped out with a space-planning calculator that helps determine the ideal square footage for a company based on number of employees and other needs.

The site also offers virtual tours of properties to help narrow the field.

RealCentric takes the process another step by generating formal requests for proposals on properties that generate credit information for the leasing party. And, the site also has a business-to-business component to link suppliers of office equipment and furnishings to the buyer.

Stuart said what used to take weeks to complete, with full days of onsite tours, now takes minutes. Instead of faxing documents and waiting for responses, many of the decisions are handled via e-mail.

The company makes money by charging a marketing fee for listing brokers on the system as well as splitting the savings a company generates by using the Internet system.

Stuart was a speaker in a recent e-commerce panel on strategic planning trends in information technology. He said that while improving business with technology is financially daunting -- he said many companies spend $6 million a year just to keep up with advancements -- the real challenge is to stay focused.

"I found that many of the IT (information technology) folks were out of touch with customers," Stuart said, "and they spoke I language I did not know."

He said his solution was to set up focus groups to hear what his customers really wanted and to "listen, listen, listen" when his technical support experts proposed suggestions.