Public Real Estate Management-Adapting Corporate Practice to the Public Sector: The Experience in Cleveland, Ohio

This paper addresses the issue of public real estate management, focusing on the potential to adapt corporate management practice to the public sector. The research begins with a review of the survey literature on real estate management practice and decisionmaking among American non-real estate corporations and public agencies in Sweden. The paper also reports the preliminary results of a survey of twenty-one suburban municipal property managers in the Cleveland, Ohio Metropolitan Area. The current public real estate management practice is described and compared with available survey results on private sector management. Topics include organization of the real estate function, information management, decision rules and policies and development activities. The feasibility of applying selected private real estate decisionmaking and management practices to the public sector is explored. Initial results show that while the municipalities surveyed participate in many real estate practices such as leasing and joint development, they often do not have the decision framework to financially evaluate these activities. One approach to enhancing the way public agencies deal with real property is set forth. The paper closes with suggestions for future research.