Waterbury, Conn., Wants to Create a Web-Based Real Estate Inventory

Feb. 15--WATERBURY, Conn.--The city Friday proposed creating a Web-based inventory of all its available commercial and industrial real estate.
Robert M. Van Geons, the city's economic development director introduced the concept to about two-dozen commercial real estate brokers at a morning meeting hosted by the Greater Waterbury Chamber of Commerce.
Van Geons said his office has applied for a $25,200 grant from the Waterbury Foundation to create the first-ever online database of available commercial property in Waterbury. The database would list all types of commercial real estate, including factory and office buildings, warehouses and empty lots zoned for industrial use, said Van Geons, who is also head of the newly created Waterbury Economic Resource Center, or WERC, which acts as a clearinghouse for all business-related issues in the city.
Van Geons said he hopes to have the database up and running by May, adding that it could be capable of adding properties throughout Greater Waterbury in the future.
Brokers praised the proposal, which would augment a widely used, membership-based statewide listing service that is not all-inclusive.
Each property on the city's Web site would be listed with a digital photo and a description of its dimensions, Van Geons said. The listing would also include broker contact information, amenities, such as the number of loading docks or parking spaces, applicable zoning limitations and leasing or purchasing information, he said.
The listing would have a mapping component that would give visitors an aerial view of the property and its vicinity. It would also allow visitors to compile site-specific demographic data about the property and its surroundings, including, for instance, the income level or shopping habits of everyone within a 3-mile radius of the property.
The new database would complement, and in some cases supplant, existing resources, according to several Waterbury area commercial and industrial real estate brokers who attended the presentation.
"I think any tool that can help us market the city of Waterbury is worth looking at," said Tom Hill III, a broker with Drubner Industrials.
Hill, who says he would not hesitate to use the new database once it is available, says he currently uses a three-pronged approach when searching for a piece property to fit the needs of a client. He said he first turns to SiteFinder, a statewide, Web-based commercial real estate listing service operated by the Rocky Hill-based Connecticut Economic Resource Center, or CERC, for its members. His next option is to consult a personal database he has cobbled together from his own research, while his third recourse is to call friends and associates within the local commercial real estate community.
Gerry Matthews of Matthews Commercial Property called the database a "good step in the right direction for Waterbury."
Like Hill, Matthews said he currently uses the CERC database and his own network of friends and contacts within the industry.
Matthews added, however, that the new resource "will only be as good as the level of participation of the brokers who put the information into it." Matthews noted there is no way to compel a broker to participate in the project.
Unlike membership-driven listing sites like CERC's SiteFinder or San Diego-based LoopNet, another option among commercial brokers, there would be no cost to land owners or real estate brokers to list their properties on the Waterbury database and the site would be accessible to anyone who has access to a computer, Van Geons said.
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