Study authors Joseph Gyourko and Asuka Nakahara, director and associate director of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, say the recent bankruptcy of Zethus "casts doubt on the near-term potential for an e-firm to fundamentally change the business model of traditional commercial brokerages." Zethus, backed by Goldman Sachs, had planned to provide technology for Web-based commercial property transactions.

Gyourko and Nakahara point to what they call the first signs of a "discount brokerage model" for commercial real estate that they say if successfully adopted, could "facilitate the move to a more purely Internet-based brokerage operation." As an example, the study highlights Tenantwise.com in Manhattan, a discount brokerage-type operation that could be a model that would move clients toward a strictly Web-based operation. For online commercial real estate companies like Peracon or Zethus to be successful online, "it may be important for a successful discount model to have been developed," the authors write.

The findings are part the second part of a three-phase study being conducted by the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors to track the impact of technology on commercial real estate brokerage. The third phase will be released at next week's Realcom 2001 conference in Dallas.