I live in a smaller suburban town, that is growing, and should continue to grow. I know it is all about location! Right now things are slower, but there are is so much development in nearby areas, it will have to come this direction. Also a turnpike interchange is being built in our area. I predict a boom in commercial properties in this area in the next few years. There is an overabundance of residential agents for the current population of our town, and surrounding areas. I am doing ok in residential, but I would like to know more about commercial real estate. I work for a small company, but have no desire to switch companies. Would it be possible for a small company to do very well against bigger companies? Would corporations that are looking at our area consider a local company or do they have relationships with the big commercial companies? Do the majority of big companies have in house agents that are in charge of securing sites? I am not so much wanting to list ground in the area, but am more interested in how to bring businesses in. I would rather try to find interested businesses, than list land and wait for them to find out about it. I have spent hours and hours researching different known franchises, to see what they require to consider an area. How do you get a companies interest? Contact through their websites? Should I put together packets showcasing area attractions, tax incentives, traffic counts, populations etc and mail them to companies? Can you receive referrals or coop with others for connections they may allready have in other areas? Any tips or direction would be greatly appreciated. I would prefer PM or email contact as some of the competition in my area could be reading this.

"Also a turnpike interchange is being built in our area. I predict a boom in commercial properties in this area in the next few years."

This may not neccesarily be true.Many states in this down economy are facing budget shortfalls.For instance in my state GA the Georgia Department of Transportation usually has applications of projects each year that run into the hundreds of millions from counties and cities to get assistance.We are over 10 years behind in our projects.

They usually rank the projects by importance base don certain criteria to fund first and then the little guys fight over the crumbs of possibly getting one of there projects done.It's not that all projects are not needed ther ei sjust not enough to go around.

We have many road widening and interchange projects that have been approved with year for plans but no way to fund them yet.Usually the city or county can fund part of the project but without help it doesn't happen.So I wouldn't count on telling prospective tenants about future road imporvements UNLESS you know they will happen soon and they are funded.Many developers and businesses don't go on WHAT IF'S.They wait until the infrastructure and demographics is at a point they like and then they make a move.There are some areas they are looking at but are a few years out in there eyes before they go in.It's all about timing with commercial real estate.