TrafficCourt

I found a new blog today, a Chicago-based one called Corporate Real Estate that’s run by Jacob Cynamon. It looks like a good one. It seems to focus a lot on office, but does cover all aspects of commercial real estate.

Jacob’s got an interesting post up right now about the greening of commercial real estate.

The entry examines specifically whether the idea of going green has become more mainstream within commercial real estate. That’s certainly something we noticed at this year’s ICSC Spring Convention. (We also had a story about the efforts in Calfornia to go green in this month’s print issue.)

The biggest idea out there that needs to be taken on–which Cynamon addresses in his post–is the misconception that going green requires a lot more money. In fact, studies are showing that the cost difference is negligible up front. And through the years operating a more energy-efficient property can actually save money. Cynamon cites a report called The Cost of Green Revisited (pdf.) to illustrate the point.

Anyway, with the U.S Green Building Council’s annual GreenBuild conference coming up in November, it will be interesting to see how much of a focus there is on commercial real estate at the show.

On another note, Cynamon’s also started a commercial real estate webring. TrafficCourt has joined. There’s just three blogs in it so far. But hopefully the idea catches on. Most real estate blogs are geared toward residential real estate. It would be great if those of us looking on the commercial side worked more to link together and support each other’s work.