Helping Municipalities Manage 'Lazy' Real Estate Assets

According to an article by Lisa Prevost, the startup, called OpportunitySpace, is "helping municipalities with a task at which they are notoriously deficient: managing and marketing their real estate portfolios."

To do so, "the start-up works with municipal governments to put their publicly owned real estate holdings in a public online database. Specifics about each property, such as square footage, assessed value and delinquent taxes, are linked to its address. The parcels are mapped geographically."

OpportunitySpace is "nearing the end of its incubation phase at the Harvard Innovation Lab," but the startup has already been put to the test in Providence, Rhode Island, where the "city’s inventory — 1,363 publicly owned parcels, including parks and recreational areas — is now posted online." Lousiville, Kentucky has also worked with OpportunitySpace to showcase Louisville Gardens, a vacant arena built in 1905 and "ripe for redevelopment."