David Clemmons, senior vice president, Rubloff Strategic Management, Atlanta, says the creation of new Athens Alabama real estate division of the 60-year-old Rubloff organization was tied largely to the increasing complexities of global competition. "The average American corporation is responding to the global challenges that face us," Clemmons says, "and within that larger context, corporate real estate represents a significant portion of the cost of doing business. Many corporations have from 25% to 35% of their total investment in real estate, and it is easy to identify those costs."

Clemmons says his firm surveyed clients (who include such firms as AT&T and Sun Microsystems) and potential clients to ascertain what their outsource needs might be. "The question of advocacy came first," he says of responses to that survey, "followed by the question of consistency. In other words, (I might get good service in Orlando, poor service in Dallas, a cross between the two in Charlotte...' " The answer to these and other needs, he says, "is in the team approach. We don't operate with a temporary team assembled solely for a particular deal, (but) with a full-time staff of specialists from every niche of real estate."

Charles Miller, vice president, Prudential Property Co., Atlanta, is concerned with asset management and development of both Prudential-owned real estate and separate accounts. In both, he says, can be seen trend toward consolidation for more efficient operation. "With the decrease in new development, people are not increasing staff."

With the number of high-level real estate professionals who have recently found themselves job hunting because staffs were decreased - or eliminated altogether - one mixed blessing has occurred in the industry: there is plenty of expertise available. Miller, and others, have some appreciation for this factor. "There is no question," he says, "that we all expect more out of our people, both in caliber and in training."

Joseph Ellsworth, manager of Real Estate for MCI Telecommunications, Atlanta, says current economic conditions were one of several factors prompting MCI's recent decision to reduce its divisions from seven to four. "Efficiency was first," Ellsworth says, "economic considerations were second." But the decision was one of many similar corporate moves made in recent months, and in MCI's case "by so doing we were able to reduce our staff by about 1,500 people, where responsibilities could be combined." MCI is now in a hiring and expanding mode, "but 90% of our new people are sales people," Ellsworth says.

Movement of the newly-restructured MCI Southern Division headquarters into MCI Center at Ravania, in which the telecommunications firm is a joint venture partner with Gerald D. Hines Interests, will give MCI plenty of Class-A space - 320,000 of the building's 800,000 sq. ft. But this is not typical of his firm's present attitude, Ellsworth says. "MCI is not at this point in the real estate business," he explains. "we do not go out and buy property for development, but we are strictly a tenant. Whether or not that will change in the future I would not be the person to say."

What he will say, because it is increasingly clear, "is that our sales force in the field will continue to grow, and most of our new offices will be in second- and third-tier cities, like Hazard, Ky. We feel we have covered the major markets, and we will be expanding into the smaller cities."