The Jacksonville/Northeast Florida Commercial Real Estate Web site received the highest accolade from Accra’s national awards, announced at the organization’s annual meeting earlier this month.
The Web site, sponsored by the Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Jacksonville Business Journal and the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties, was recognized for Outstanding Achievement with the 2003 Applied Community & Economic Research Award.
Accra is not an acronym. The organization was created in 1961 by several chamber of commerce researchers who felt that there was a need for applied community researchers to meet, share ideas, and transfer knowledge.
The Accra awards program recognizes the contribution of research activities to the success of local, regional or state/provincial economic development initiatives.
The purpose of the award is to help increase the quality of economic development research by identifying meritorious projects and promoting the diffusion of creative ideas for research activities.
Entries for the award were graded against other community organizations across the country in the following categories: contribution to research field, innovation in approach or implementation, unique approach to using researchers as part of the economic development team, response to customer needs, economic or other benefits that have resulted from implementing the project, quality of product or process, and replicability for other ACCRA members.
In 2001, the Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commer began working on a web-enabled, interactive commercial and industrial properties database. The purpose of developing the database was to give Cornerstone and local commercial real estate brokers a tool for presenting the available properties and sites efficiently, accurately and in real time.
“The Jacksonville/Northeast Florida Commercial Real Estate Web site serves the needs of site consultants,business prospects and Northeast Florida commercial real estate professionals,” said John Haley, vice president for business recruitment at the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce.