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Six-year-old dot-com survivor LoopNet sets its
sights on commercial lending. Commercial
property listings may be the stickiness factor
that brings eyeballs and business to this
San Francisco-based online player.
Next to tackle: profits.
AT 33, DENNIS DEANDRE IS AN OLD HAND AT THIS INTERNET STUFF. Six years ago, he risked all he owned-his home, car, stocks and $80,000 in capital-for the sake of his dot-com. "I would never recommend someone starting a company by themselves," says the founder and chief executive officer of San Francisco-based LoopNet, an Internet-based provider of commercial property listings and other services. "It was far too stressful." 40 Stressful, perhaps, by DeAndre's own doing. After all, he did start a business on the Internet-and we all know what can happen to those kinds of businesses. He also refused to relinquish control of his dream when LoopNet began to take off. But probably the most stressful aspect of DeAndre's chosen career is that his customers are commercial real estate professionals, who are, by and large, some of the biggest fraidy-cats in the business world when it comes to technology.
And it has worked-so far, at least. In the eyes of most industry observers, LoopNet is the king of online commercial property listings. At last count, the Web site carried more than 137,000 property listings with about $91 billion in for-sale properties and 1.7 billion square feet of properties for lease. A June merger with its next closest competitor, Los Angeles-based PropertyFirst.com, should only solidify the company's hold in the commercial listing arena.
LoopNet has since moved on to build Web sites for commercial firms, outsource its listing database to other Web sites and provide online marketing materials, demographic reports and contract help. Now the company is linking borrowers with lenders and originating commercial loans through its subsidiary, LoopLender. But despite the size and scope of its services and despite a relatively long history, questions linger over LoopNet's future-as well as over the impact technology will have in the world of commercial real estate.
Getting inside the loop
The LoopNet offices are located in an old butter factory in San Francisco's Mission District-the heart of the city's new Internet economy. According to DeAndre, you can still feel the channels buried in...