“We are honored to be part of The New York Times’ unprecedented efforts to have Chicago journalists produce local news for America’s premier newspaper,” said CNC co-founder and editor James O’Shea. “Despite the financial challenges faced by all media, The Times’ commitment to readers in Chicago speaks worlds about the paper’s values and dedication to quality journalism. The city is a better place with added voices providing local news.”

WTTW public television is a co-founder of CNC, which will also collaborate with WBEZ Chicago Public Radio and other outlets to extend its reporting over the air and on the Web. In 2010 CNC will introduce a Web site combining news programming designed to educate and activate with social networking intended to connect people who share common interests.

O’Shea, former editor of the Los Angeles Times and past managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, will lead CNC’s team of news industry veterans and new-media journalists. James Warren — an MSNBC analyst, past Tribune managing editor and current publisher of the Chicago Reader — will write a regular CNC column that will appear in The Times’ Chicago pages.

Other CNC journalists include David Greising, former Tribune business columnist, and Jessica Reaves and Bill Parker, former Tribune reporters. José M. Moré, a Tribune photographer for 28 years, will spearhead CNC’s photographic efforts.

Dan Mihalopoulous, who has covered Chicago’s City Hall for the Tribune since 2003, will head up CNC’s coverage of city government. Katie Fretland, previously a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald, will join Mihalopoulous on the city beat.

CNC has brought together an advisory board chaired by its co-founder, Peter Osnos, the founder of PublicAffairs books, who has a background in journalism, publishing and social entrepreneurship. Other members of the advisory board are James O’Shea; Dan Schmidt, president and CEO of WTTW; Newton Minow, senior counsel at Sidley & Austin and chair of the Federal Communications Commission in the Kennedy administration; Martin Koldyke, former chairman of WTTW and founder of the Golden Apple Foundation; Ann Marie Lipinski, Pulitzer Prize-winning former editor of the Chicago Tribune and current vice president of Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago; Michael Davies, president and CEO of AlphaZeta Interactive; Bruce Sagan, owner and publisher of the Hyde Park Herald; Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo, a Publicis company; and Dawn Sinclair Shapiro, a broadcast journalist and documentary film director at Woodlawn Avenue Productions.

“At a time when so many news organizations are in a forced retreat, it’s exciting to be part of a venture that has set out to build more and better news coverage,” said Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times. “Working with the Chicago News Cooperative will allow us to expand our coverage of Chicago with sophisticated reporting by local journalists with deep roots in the community.” The Times added pages and a blog focused on the San Francisco market in October.

Like other news services, CNC will receive payment for its Times coverage. CNC expects to create a self-sustaining business model based on diverse revenue streams including advertising, membership and service fees. In its startup phase, CNC has received support from WTTW, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Winston & Strawn LLP and civic leaders interested in funding substantive journalism for a democratic society.

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Briefing

• Carefully weigh the go/no-go decision.
• Research the client and the competition.
• Focus on how you can benefit the client.
• Follow the rules set forth in the RFP.
• Make your proposal easy to read.
• Make every proposal better than the last one.

LAUNCH

Step 1: Pull the trigger (or not). In a tough economy, it’s tempting to chase every opportunity that comes along. Resist that temptation. Instead, consider whether the project fits your company’s capabilities, business model and bottom-line objectives. Ask yourself these key questions:

• Can you do the work? Can your existing staff handle it? Will you need to staff up or partner with another firm? Can you pull together a team in time to develop your proposal?
• Can you win the work? Who’s the likely competition? What strengths can you leverage against them? If you submit, would you rate your proposal a shoo-in or a long-shot?
• Do you want the work? Is it a good fit? Will it be profitable? Will it enhance your reputation? Will it help you enter a new market?

Be honest. If the assignment isn’t for you, save your time and energy for another opportunity.

Step 2: Start the countdown. The moment you decide to “go,” chart all the mileposts in preparing the proposal, from assembling the team to packaging the final product. Counting backward from the delivery deadline, allocate time for each task. Add extra time, especially if you’re submitting with another firm, and leave a buffer for contingencies.

Step 3: Mobilize the team. Forge whatever partnerships you need to round out your team. Establish roles and responsibilities for everyone, and communicate them clearly. Determine who will spearhead the project, gather information, draft content, develop budgets, design the document, produce and deliver it. Critically important, assign someone — better still, a team — to review the final document front to back while you still have time to make changes. Touch base at intervals to make sure the team has everything covered and no vital requirement has fallen by the wayside.

INTEL

Step 4: Conduct intelligence. If you’re not already familiar with the prospective client, find out all you can about the organization, the project and the goals behind it. If you’ve worked with the client before, find out what’s new. Ask what other firms got the RPF and how yours was selected to receive it. Scout out the strengths and weaknesses of the other players. (Conducting regular competitive audits will save you a step here.) Attend any pre-bid conference. Caution: Some proposals set rules of engagement for how you may contact the prospective client. Play by the rules. They’re especially important with public agencies, but even with a private company, an unsanctioned call can disqualify your proposal.

Step 5: Push the hot buttons. Determine the ultimate decision-makers in the selection process and learn all you can about their preferences. Read the RFP carefully; it’s full of clues if you know how to find them. Note any areas where you’re confident you can outperform your competition. Above all, focus on the client and the tangible benefits you can deliver. If you’ve gone through a branding and positioning process, you’re ahead of the game. When you’ve worked out your key messages, put them front and center in your cover letter and executive summary.

ROLLOUT

Step 6: Hone the message. Share your key messages with all team members contributing content to the proposal, and speak with one voice. Decide whether to write the proposal in first person (we, our) or third person (the firm, the joint venture). Agree whether to refer to the prospective client as “you” — less formal but more engaging — or “XYZ Corp.” Having a style guide for your company saves time and promotes consistency. If you’re submitting with other firms, use the same template for all company profiles, bios and project sheets, and read through every page for consistency.

Step 7: Take the scan test. As much time as you put into your proposal, the reader may take only seconds to give it thumbs up or thumbs down. Long stretches of dense text can work against you. To make the proposal reader-friendly, lay out the pages with enough white space to let the eye rest. Then focus the reader’s attention where you want it, using subheads, callouts, bullet points and graphic elements to highlight key messages.

Step 8: Follow the marching orders. At many organizations, especially government agencies, reviewing proposals begins with a compliance audit. Someone sits down with a stack of proposals and weeds out any documents that deviate from the RFP’s checklist. Great, creative thinking can land in the trash because the addenda were labeled 1 through 5 instead of A through E. If you decide to organize your proposal differently than the RFP specifies, include a matrix clearly showing where every required element appears in your proposal — and understand you’re taking a risk.

ENDGAME

Step 9: Debrief. Win or lose, after each proposal gather your team to review lessons learned. Include everyone from the top of the org chart to the people in charge of production and delivery. Ask what went right, what went wrong and how you can do better next time. While the experience is fresh, you’ll get good ideas and a head start on your next win.

Having a solid game plan in place can move more proposals to the win column. Many companies work with a marketing team to help them set up a system and polish major proposals. More importantly, your marketing team can help you raise your profile with key industry players before they issue their RFPs — because receiving the RFP is the most crucial step in winning any proposal.

About DickinsonGroup
DickinsonGroup is a national real estate marketing firm. Our clients cover the full spectrum of commercial and residential real estate, from developers and architects to brokers, property managers and professional service firms. We’re a one-stop resource for branding, print and digital communications, and public relations. Fusing strategic thinking and creativity, we help our clients build awareness that builds business. To learn more, visit www.dickinsongroup.com, or contact Colleen Scrivner at 312-239-1102 or cscrivner@dickinsongroup.com.

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Less than a year after she paid $141,500 for her two-bedroom unit, one of only eight people who bought a condo in the converted apartment building, Harris Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the developer. The property, at 70 S. Buffalo Grove Road, is now in receivership.

“Who knows if I would even get what I paid for it?” says Ms. Osada, 55, who closed on her unit in October 2008.

Stories such as Ms. Osada’s are a common hangover symptom from the heady days of Chicago’s real estate boom, when even those who waited out the worst of the excess ended up burned. Now, with the area’s housing market finally showing signs of improvement, the question is what, if anything, developers and real estate agents can do to win back the trust of the newly sober public. If they fail, observers warn, the nascent recovery may lose momentum.

The problem: Not everyone can agree on how to fix what’s broken. And some are still debating whether the market really has hit bottom.

There is good news. Now that financing for new housing developments is neither cheap nor easy to obtain, many of the inexperienced or unscrupulous developers who have left new-home buyers stranded in half-completed subdivisions and condos have been weeded out. Another factor: the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers. The National Assn. of Realtors says an extension of the federal credit could help fill empty homes and keep the recovery going.

But Chris Eigel, CEO of Chicago-based residential brokerage Prudential Rubloff, argues that the biggest unknown may still rest with the buyers themselves, who must adjust their mindset and abandon hope of timing the bottom.

“People can’t just look at their houses as an investment — it’s where you live,” he says.

RECOVERY SIGNS

For the first time in more than three years, the area’s home sales halted their free fall and posted modest year-over-year monthly increases in July and August. In the nine-county Chicago region, there were 7,009 homes sold in August, a 1.3% increase from August 2008. Sales in July rose 0.3% to 7,427, according to the Illinois Assn. of Realtors.

Credited for nudging sales higher was a combination of factors, including low mortgage interest rates, aggressive price cuts at many new condominium and townhouse projects and the federal tax credit. Nationally, as many as 1.2 million buyers have taken advantage of that tax break, according to data from the Realtors association. But the credit ends Nov. 30.

“If that tax credit expires, we’re going to see fewer sales,” says Michael Onorato, president of the association.

To be sure, the credit’s sunset is a big hurdle in the market’s path to recovery, but it is not the only one. Scads of homeowners want to move but can’t sell their homes because of competition from cheaper distressed or short-sale properties. Others are underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, or they’re hesitant to plunk down money on a new residence because their net worth has tanked, or they’re fearful of losing their jobs.

Developer James Hanson says the economy has to get better before the market does.

“We’re looking for a recovery in confidence,” says Mr. Hanson, a principal at Chicago-based Mesa Development LLC. “We need people to feel good about their life and the economy and spending their money on real estate.”

Mr. Hanson is preaching patience, even though he has no plans to halt sales or cut prices at his 72-story Legacy at Millennium Park high-rise, near Monroe Street and Wabash Avenue.

About 90% of the tower’s 356 units are under contract, and the first wave of closings began in September. As that process continues, Mesa expects to lose a few sales to would-be buyers who fail to obtain financing amid tighter credit markets or who lose their jobs and find they can’t afford a new condo.

Still, he is optimistic that the housing market is slowly crawling out of its hole and expects to sell out the Legacy by next summer, an ambitious but achievable goal if the market keeps improving.

SEASONAL SLOWDOWN

The final months of the year are usually a slow time for real estate sales. That’s why the industry is holding its breath until first-quarter 2010, when observers will have a clearer idea whether the recent uptick was an anomaly or a small step in what’s expected to be a slow and winding recovery, says James Kinney, vice-president of luxury home sales at Chicago-based residential brokerage Baird & Warner Inc.

The recovery is threatening to leave behind the high end of the market, where the government stimulus has had little effect because buyers typically aren’t purchasing their first homes.

That’s one reason sales of new downtown homes — often more expensive than those in other neighborhoods — have shown scant improvement.

Even after a recent spike, downtown new-home sales this year will finish well below the 5,783 units sold in 2006 or the roughly 4,000 units in 2007, according to data from Chicago-based consulting firm Appraisal Research Counselors.

As a result, many downtown projects have cut their pricing, boosting sales.

The developer of the East Loop’s Metropolitan Tower credits discounts of at least 25% on selected units with boosting sales at the 30-story project. Buyers have now purchased about 80% of the 242 condos at the two-year-old development at 310 S. Michigan Ave., says Louis D’Angelo, president of Metropolitan Properties of Chicago LLC.

While Mr. D’Angelo is still trying to sell about a dozen discounted units, he may opt to take all of the tower’s unsold condos, even the discounted ones, off the market if the economy doesn’t improve.

“It’s not an easy decision to make,” he says. But by mothballing sales, “you’re betting on where the market will be in 12 to 18 months.”

AN UPSIDE

While buyers’ newfound circumspection might stall a recovery in the short term, it may turn out to be a positive trend in the long term. During the housing boom, many people were caught up in the frenzy and purchased without first reviewing developers’ track records. As a result, many buyers were burned.

Keith Forshaw estimates that he and other residents at his 23-unit Edgewater condominium complex, completed four years ago, have collectively paid about $165,000 for a new roof, sewer system and other improvements that the developer promised to complete but didn’t.

Mr. Forshaw’s development isn’t the only misfire from Chicago-based developer Venter & Associates Inc. Earlier this year, Libertyville Bank & Trust Co. repossessed a 64-unit apartment building at 4860 N. Rockwell Ave. that Venter also planned to convert to condos. Attempts to reach Ilie Venter, the company’s president, were unsuccessful.

Mr. Forshaw, 36, says he’s invested too much time and energy to go someplace else. But if he does ever decide to sell, he vows to do things differently.

“I would never move into a new place where I couldn’t talk to the people who lived there or find out the building’s issues,” says Mr. Forshaw, who paid $310,000 in March 2005 for a two-bedroom unit at 5059 N. Kenmore Ave.

“You’re making one of the largest purchases of your life, and there should be a lot more scrutiny.”

©2009 by Crain Communications Inc.

The Miami-based firm has hired Lincoln Property Co. to find tenants for the two buildings, 55 W. Wacker Drive and the LaSalle-Wacker Building at 121 W. Wacker, where the firm has been selling smaller chunks of space to companies that want to own their offices and to investors.  

While Cape Horn will continue marketing units for sale, the company also is offering short- and long-term leases for the roughly 90,000 square feet of space available in the two towers, says Juan DeAngulo, the firm’s regional manager.  

“It allows us to be patient and keep good valuation of our assets,” Mr. DeAngulo says.  

Lincoln’s challenge will be to scrape up new tenants amid a soft office leasing market, where there’s scant demand and plenty of available space. The downtown vacancy rate spiked to nearly 15% in the third quarter, the highest level in three years, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

“Everything is tough today,” says John Grissim, an executive vice-president and head of Lincoln’s Midwest office. “But these are nice buildings and if you offer the right terms, I think they’ll make market deals.”  

Veteran landlord representative Kim Robare, who recently left CB Richard Ellis Inc. to join Lincoln, leads the leasing team.  

In addition to LaSalle-Wacker and 55 W. Wacker, Lincoln is also charged with leasing another Cape Horn property, 205 W. Wacker Drive, which never was converted to individually owned units.  

The 209,000-square-foot 55 W. Wacker is about half sold, while buyers have taken just 20% of the 416,424-square-foot LaSalle-Wacker, Mr. DeAngulo says. Some of the unsold space is already leased.  

Cape Horn’s 205 W. Wacker, which is 244,000 square feet, is about 80% occupied.  

Matthew Ochalski, president of tenant-rep firm GD Realty LLC, says Cape Horn is turning to Lincoln for help with leasing because a core group of office-condo buyers — small entrepreneurs — are avoiding such capital expenses.  

“Everyone is waiting for something to happen with the economy before they make that type of commitment,” says Mr. Ochalski, whose Chicago-based firm has represented buyers of office space, including units in 55 W. Wacker. 

Lincoln manages the three Cape Horn buildings, one reason they got the assignment, Mr. DeAngulo says. But the firm’s ties to the properties don’t stop there. At CB Richard Ellis, Mr. Robare handled leasing at 205 W. Wacker. And Dallas-based Lincoln owned 55 W. Wacker for six years before selling the 15-story property to Cape Horn in 2006.

• Target your most promising award opportunities
• Capture supporting material from day one
• Collaborate with fellow team members
• Deliver a knockout nomination

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The Winning Formula

• Target your most promising award opportunities
• Capture supporting material from day one
• Collaborate with fellow team members
• Deliver a knockout nomination

 CHOOSE YOUR TARGETS

1. Scope out the awards for which your project might qualify. Cast a wide net. While major industry honors have great cachet, don’t overlook specialized awards. Review the entry requirements and make sure you have all the information and material you’ll need for your submission. Pay special attention to eligibility time frames and how project completion is defined. Find out, too, whether you can resubmit if you don’t win the first time.

2. Understand the selection criteria and judging process. Do due diligence on the selection committee and the type of projects that usually win. Some awards favor cutting edge design or innovative solutions. Others lean toward hard numbers or economic success. Play to your strengths.

3. Know the competition. As you read trade publications, notice other projects that might be going after the same major awards you are. If you see a blockbuster in the making, consider whether to go head-to-head or pursue niche awards you’d have a better chance of winning.

4. Prioritize. Unless you’re made of time and money, you can’t pursue every opportunity. Pick your best shots and put your effort there.

 GATHER YOUR AMMO

5. Zero in on the requirements. If you can plan that far ahead, start your project with an award in mind, and make sure to capture supporting material from day one. Will you need to demonstrate how a project affected the client’s staff? Conduct benchmark and post-completion surveys. Will you need to illustrate how a design transformed a community (or a condominium)? Take” before” pictures before you start work. Will you need to document a year’s worth of tenant events? Have your camera always at the ready.

6. Collaborate with other team members. Let them know about awards that would apply to them more directly than to you, and offer to support their nomination. Think about preparing joint nominations, sharing the cost of photography and producing the submission packages. Or pool your resources and hire marketing professionals to prepare your submissions.

7. Pave the way with PR. Judges, like everyone else, are attracted by the familiar. Your chances of winning go up if the judges have heard of your project before they open your submission packet. A PR campaign can help give you that kind of advance recognition — as well as support sales, leasing and business development.

 DELIVER A KNOCKOUT NOMINATION

8. Read and follow instructions. Pay attention to all the minute details that could get you disqualified. Contact the competition organizers if you need clarification. If you have an opportunity, take the submission a step beyond the stated requirements. Just don’t step out of bounds.

9. Look at your project from an outsider’s viewpoint. What’s compelling to the award judges? It’s tempting to stress the parts of the project that gave you the most gray hair or the greatest pride. Resist that impulse — or save those thoughts for your acceptance speech. The judges want to know how your project meets their award criteria. Hammer that message home.

10. Make sure your submission reflects the excellence that characterized your project. Check everything at least twice. Involve the project team for their expertise, command of the facts and access to the details. Enlist fresh eyes from people who weren’t on the project; anything that isn’t clear to them might not be clear to the judges, either. If the award regulations allow, use testimonial quotes or letters of recommendation from constituencies such as city officials, end users and community groups to back up your nomination. Dot your i’s, cross your t’s, cross your fingers and wait for the results.

 WIN OR LOSE

If you don’t win, remember, that isn’t the same as losing. You got your name out in front of respected leaders in your industry, and that visibility has value. See if the judges will give you feedback or pointers. Then go back to your list of targeted awards and start on the next submission. This is no time to quit!

 If you do win, check with the organization conferring the honors to determine how and when you can promote your award. Share the good news with the rest of the project team. They have bragging rights, too. Then go back to your list of targeted awards and start on your next submission. This is no time to rest on your laurels!

About DickinsonGroup

DickinsonGroup has produced winning nominations for the Urban Land Institute’s Award for Excellence, the Building Owners and Managers Association’s international TOBY (The Office Building of the Year),about a dozen Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards and other industry honors. (It helps that our clients do great work.) DickinsonGroup is a national real estate marketing firm. Our clients cover the full spectrum of commercial and residential real estate, from developers and architects to brokers, property managers and professional service firms. We’re a one-stop resource for branding, print and digital communications, and public relations. Fusing strategic thinking and creativity, we help our clients build awareness that builds business. To learn more, visit www.dickinsongroup.com, or contact Colleen Scrivner at 312-239-1102 or cscrivner@dickinsongroup.com.

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> Was this information helpful?

> Is there something more you’d like to learn about online marketing?

> What topics would you like to see covered in future Marketing REsource papers?

Follow this link to give us your thoughts. We look forward to hearing from you.

DickinsonGroup Building Awareness that Builds Business 205 West Wacker | Suite 1800 | Chicago Illinois 60606 | 312.239.1100 National Real Estate Marketing | dickinsongroup.com

Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings design services to communities in need, launched the competition as part of a global initiative to generate ideas from around the world.  The architecture, design and engineering communities were asked to collaborate directly with real students and teachers to improve their school’s learning environment. More than 1,000 design teams from 65 countries registered for the competition.

The Built Form entry, “Extending the Classroom,” is a distinctive design using a rural satellite classroom located in southern Wisconsin as an extension of an urban Chicago classroom.  By providing an alternative rural setting for learning that is tied to the urban location, students develop an awareness of their environment and learn about new and different places and cultures.  This extension of the classroom will help teachers educate students about positive lifestyles, leadership skills, self-motivation and awareness of the world outside one’s immediate surroundings. To integrate students into a lifestyle of sustainable living, the design features the use of sustainable design strategies including passive environmental control, modular construction methods and recycled materials.

Each submission was rated on feasibility, sustainability, innovation in learning and overall design quality by a team of interdisciplinary jurors. Following three rounds of judging, the field of over 400 qualified entries was reduced to a shortlist of 52 teams. In late July, a panel of jurors who had met at the Aspen Ideas Festival (attended by U.S. Secretary of Education, and former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan), announced eight teams as finalists. The final award winners will be announced in early September with the winning team receiving a $50,000 grand prize to be used to build the classroom.  The design team will receive a $5,000 prize.

As part of the 10th anniversary of the National Design Awards celebrated at the White House on July 24 and attended by Architecture for Humanity co-founders, teachers and administration officials, First Lady Michelle Obama was presented with a portfolio of the finalists.

Rowe Elementary School, a charter school, will be operated by Northwestern University Settlement House, a not-for-profit organization that has been serving low-income, minority families in Chicago for 120 years through a range of programs including education, arts, youth and community services.

The seven other finalists include:

The Blurred Classroom, Gensler, New York, NY, United States

Teton Valley Community School, Section Eight Design, Victor, ID, United States

Teksing Bamboo School, Petr Kostner, Sona Huberova and Martina Sobotkova, Czech Republic

Classroom for the Salt Pan Community, Rajesh Kapoor, Prashant Solanky, Bharat Karamchandani and Kiran Vaghela, Gujurat, India

A Sustainable Community Classroom for Uganda, Chris Soley, Farah Naz, Hayley Maxwell, Edward Crammond and Jessica Robinson of Gifford LLC, United Kingdom

Justified Architecture in a Landscape of Transition, Architectura Justa, Bogota, Colombia

Adaptable Hillside Classrooms, Andrew Macintosh, Matthew Brown, Nilufer Kocabas of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Buro Happold, United Kingdom

About Built Form

Built Form, LLC is a 20 person architecture firm located in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago.  The firm is a practice that combines the creative energies of a small design firm with the technical capabilities of a much larger firm that has executed projects of varying scale, type and complexity in various locations throughout the world.  The firm’s design process focuses on team collaboration and intensive project research to provide creative architectural solutions that address the relevant issues of the day.  With an emphasis on projects that help create better communities and address issues of sustainability, the firm is dedicated to producing architecture of lasting significance.  For more information see: www.built-form.net

Among the information available initially will be a parking facility’s entry points, hours of operation, accepted forms of payment, normalized pricing schedule, height restrictions and amenities provided. Real-time payment and reservation functionality may be enabled in the future.

The parking companies participating in the launch of Parking Data Ventures include its founding partners – Central Parking System, Inc. and Standard Parking (NASDAQ: STAN). Other parking companies making their data available to the database include:  Ampco System Parking, Impark, Republic Parking, Lanier Parking, Ace Parking, and Five Star Parking. Collectively, these parking companies operate more than 10,000 parking facilities across North America, a number that is expected to grow as additional parking companies join this initiative to make parking facility information more accessible to consumers and to drive new revenue to their parking locations.

Parking Data Ventures is actively licensing its parking database directly to Internet portals, navigation device providers, and wireless carriers that are seeking to enhance their local search and location-based service (LBS) applications. The database will provide current information that can be accessed by customers seeking event, airport, and urban parking.
“The purpose of Parking Data Ventures is to ensure that the parking industry and parking consumers benefit from the distribution of accurate data about its parking facilities,” explained Michael Drow, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Standard Parking. “Only the parking companies themselves can ensure that current and accurate data reaches the parking public, and Parking Data Ventures will offer a cutting-edge, innovative solution to get that data to the people who rely on it.”
“We believe a significant opportunity exists to market this high-quality parking data to key Internet search engines as well as many other companies that provide local search products,” added Jim Bond, Central Parking’s Executive Vice President. “In light of recent announcements by such companies regarding their intent to enhance their local search applications on interactive devices, the time is right to provide parking data products that can be used to augment the parking experience of online and mobile customers.”
“Parking data is increasingly important as consumers are able to receive real-time data via interactive devices,” noted Jason Boseck, President of Parking Data Ventures. Commenting on today’s announced launch, Boseck stated, “Existing sources of parking data are simply inadequate, and I look forward to working with the top Internet search engines and parking industry to bring this important content to market.”
More information about Parking Data Ventures and opportunities for licensing is available from Parking Data Ventures President Jason Boseck, 410-991-1025 or jboseck@parkingdataventures.com.
About Parking Data Ventures

Parking Data Ventures, LLC is the leading source of high-quality parking data in the US and Canadian markets. Parking Data Ventures sources its data directly from many of the largest parking companies in North America. This high-quality parking data can be used to significantly enhance the local search and location based service (LBS) offerings from Internet portals, navigation device providers, and wireless carriers.press-release-parking-industry-leaders-announce-launch-of-parking-data-ventures-final

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