The Prudential portfolio contains 19 million sf; six million sf is owned. Less than one million sf is outside US borders. Rytter estimates that 5% of the portfolio is excess space. He says Prudential's brokerage firm, GVA Williams of New York City, supports the approach. "We have the ability to look at the entire market, including sublease space," he says. "The information flow on both sides of the equation is what is going to make this work."

Patterson says CREX will be used in adjunct with traditional strategies employed by its recently retained brokerage firms, Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. and Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle. "The specific application here is getting rid of surplus space," he says. "The traditional corporate approach to that is to become a landlord and lease that space to someone else. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't."

Patterson says Bank of America's 40 million-sf portfolio, excluding branch locations, has 30 million sf in leased sites and the balance owned. He's willing to put up Bank of America's three million sf of renewals each year to help unload the estimated three million-sf surplus. Besides, there's always the chance that there's a match at a cheaper rate. Then, the task is to weigh the bottom line of renewing, moving and long-term savings. For the space holder, more than one match could trigger a bidding war.

Hard savings is merely a hypothesis at this stage. Patterson crunches numbers that show Bank of America could realize, theoretically, $1.3 million in savings annually by connecting with discounted surplus space for a fraction of its renewals that come up each year. The challenge is finding the shoe that fits. And even if it looks like a match, he says, "you're still a long way from a deal"–and that's where the broker steps in to do his job.

NetStruxr's Michael Baumann, executive vice president, says "all we do is identify there's an opportunity in the market." Brokers aren't being shortchanged by the exchange. "They still have to negotiate," he stresses. But, he's quick to add, "people who join agree to behave in a certain way. Whenever a corporation has a new space requirement or renewal, they will prioritize considering relocation to another CREX members' excess space.