Mar 21, 2007

Innovative Web site touts region's office space

Joint Venture to celebrate launch

By Will Oremus / Daily News Staff Writer

To startups and other firms shopping for a place to set up new headquarters, Silicon Valley is typically at the high end of the list, both in desirability and in price.

"When you're doing high-end shopping, you need service," said Russell Hancock, president of the nonprofit Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network. "We're (like) Nordstrom. And we need to provide the kind of service you expect from a Nordstrom."

That's the concept behind the Silicon Valley Prospector, an interactive Web site whose launch will be celebrated by Joint Venture today. An unprecedented collaboration between the region's major commercial real estate brokers and 20 area cities, the site is a one-stop repository of available office space in cities from San Mateo to San Jose.

The site, which has already been online for several days, features searchable maps, one-click links to cities' economic development departments, and scads of demographic information culled from the census and other sources. Funded by the member cities and corporations that make up Joint Venture, Hancock believes it will give the valley "a leg up" on competing regions, whether Austin, Boston, Beijing or Bangalore.

Joint Venture is so far best known for its regional wireless Internet initiative, but the Prospector is the second major initiative from its business development arm, called the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance. The first was Silicon Valley Online, a regional business resource.

Local startups looking to expand and out-of-town firms looking to relocate are two of the site's main targets. If they're looking for, say, 25,000 to 35,000 square feet of vacant space in an office building in San Mateo County, they can type those criteria into the site's main page and get a list of 17 properties.

Among the options are 1060 Marsh Road in Menlo Park, 1600 Seaport Blvd. in Redwood City and 1051 East Hillsdale Blvd. in San Mateo. A click on one of the choices brings up a photo, the e-mail address of the broker and links to demographic information for the surrounding area -- including education levels, household income and work force status.

Another click takes the viewer to the Web page of the relevant city's economic development department. In Mountain View, the page says, "Your success is our Business!" and touts its relationship with Google and Verisign, among other firms.

Hancock said some brokers were skeptical, because they have their own marketing strategies and their own proprietary directories of vacant space. But he said the major players eventually agreed to give the innovative site a try.

San Carlos Assistant City Manager Brian Moura said his city was looking at creating a similar resource but dropped the idea when it found out Joint Venture was interested. Instead of the city spending $20,000 to $30,000 on a site that would likely only be visited by those who already knew of San Carlos, it is now spending only about $1,200 to participate in the regionwide site, Moura said.

The Prospector got rave reviews from San Mateo Chamber of Commerce President Linda Asbury on Tuesday. "I went into it a couple days ago, and it's amazing," she said. "I think it's going to be a great tool for our efforts in recruiting and retaining businesses in San Mateo."


E-mail Will Oremus at woremus@dailynewsgroup.com.