The New York State Commercial Association of Realtors and the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise hosted a presentation of a new commercial listing software program at Harry’s Harbor Place Grill Thursday.

The program will help commercial realtors to work together and centralize their listings with Commercial Listing System (CLS), similar to the Multiple Listing System (MLS) that has been used by residential realtors for years.

The challenge surrounding commercial real estate in Western New York is that the “information is scattered. There is no centralized location so you need to go to the individual commercial real estate sites,” according to Paula Blanchard, Commercial Realtor and Marketing Committee Chair of the Western New York Chapter of the New York State Commercial Association of Realtors.

The goal is to “create a more synergistic organization” among Western New York commercial realtors, says Kristin Badger-Bach, Past President of the Western New York Chapter of NYSCAR and membership chair. Buffalo is the home of “smart people, the 20-minute commute and one-fifth of the world’s fresh water supply. We need to tell people our story, leverage marketing and spread the word.”

Catalyst Real Estate software, according to Nancy McKellar, Vice President of Regional Sales will help realtors “save time, save money, make money by creating relationships and working together.”

Patricia Collins, President of the Western New York Chapter of NYSCAR stresses the importance of getting people to work together and utilize the system. “It’s like the chicken and the egg, until people are using it, it’s not recognized as a resource,” she said. “The purpose is to bring people together.”

Thomas Kucharski, President and CEO, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise says that commercial real estate is one of the pieces of the puzzle that attracts people to do business in Buffalo, which has “low cost power, a high quality work force and affordable real estate. We are recognized nationally as a college town with a high quality of labor,” Kucharski says of Buffalo, “we are going to come out of this economic downturn as one of the places leading the way.”

Originally appeared in buffalo.com