Sometimes less is indeed more. Today's corporate real estate executives have literally "seen it all" over the course of their careers, living through successive waves of business process re-engineering, the Internet revolution, offshoring and global sourcing and widely distributed work environments. Each successive wave has typically resulted in reduction in the overall facilities footprint for their employer, coupled with an imperative for more generic and flexible space that can be quickly and cost effectively repurposed. As public sector austerity continues in the aftermath of the Great Recession, governments at all levels are applying corporate real estate strategies that have been validated in the private sector. In Florida, the aerospace industry has been subjected to significant cutbacks at NASA?s John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), owing to the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 and the cancellation of its intended follow-on program, Constellation, in 2010. These two events have combined to leave millions of square feet of facilities at KSC unused. Included in this total are very specialized and costly-to-recreate facilities, with unique capabilities in areas such as refurbishment of spacecraft for flight; preparation of payloads (e.g., crew supplies); and microgravity research experiments, for safe transportation to orbit. With NASA facing severe budget constraints, preserving the most viable of these facilities to support future spaceflight programs is critical.

Creating a great quality of life in the workplace is a challenge that Sandy Heistand has happily undertaken as the Director of Real Estate and Facilities for Advent Software. With more than 20 years of experience in real estate, facilities and operations, Heistand understands how her role provides the foundation for building a strong and productive community at Advent.

Although it's been said for many years that the U.S. is losing its manufacturing base and has turned into a service economy, both the public and private sectors of many markets are trying to revive manufacturing as a key element of economic growth. The trend to ?offshoring? seems to have reversed itself; many corporations are finding that it?s more efficient to base their production in the States. Moreover, the manufacturing sector tends to seek ?knowledge workers? today, more than unskilled labor. Steven Lantsberger, Economic Development Director for the city of Hesperia, Calif., reports that his town is making a special effort to lure more manufacturing to the area.

When she's not taking some precious free time to go wakeboarding, Pamela Keefe spends her time leading an aggressive strategy to build Teknion's business in Asia. As the company's Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific for the last year, Keefe and her team are working on launching a new product portfolio, hiring talent and building a strong team, rolling out new service models to support Teknion?s clients and establishing a strong shared services team.

The state of the commercial real estate (CRE) industry in the Midwestern U.S. defies generalization. The first few months of 2013 looked encouraging for some states, dismal for others. No state is without its pockets of prosperity and depression. In general, the strongest commercial real estate markets are found where education and transportation are major components of the economy ? and in states whose principal industries weren?t much affected by the late recession. Another factor is the solvency of each state. Those that have racked up high expenses often have to raise taxes to pay their bills, and this discourages potential incomers.