At the end of 2005, with approval from ORRA's Board of Directors, the Central Florida Commercial Real Estate Society (CFCRES) Board of Directors decided to pursue the process and practicality of morphing into a Regional Commercial Overlay Board (COB), a formal concept endorsed by NAR. Florida already has one COB in the Tampa Bay area, formed about ten years ago, Florida Gulf Coast Commercial Association of Realtors (www.fgcar.org).

A COB Steering Committee was organized, made up of 40 of Central Florida's top commercial practitioners. The Steering Committee defined and received approval from 11 local associations in the nine county area and thus, defined the regional commercial practice area (Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia Counties) and the name of the new association, Central Florida Commercial Association of REALTORS® (CFCAR).

Florida Association of REALTORS approved CFCAR's application on September 16, 2006, advancing it to NAR, who approved it on November 10, 2006 at their meetings in New Orleans.

CFCAR will provide commercial practitioners with a strong new identity, while greatly expanding opportunities to network and market listings, search properties or collaborate with other commercial practitioners regionally. Consequently, membership is anticipated to grow to 1,500 plus within the next 18 months. All CFCRES members will automatically transfer to CFCAR as "charter members".

The new CFCAR Officers and Directors were elected on November 6 and installed on November 17 at the CFCAR Inaugural Gala Celebration. For more information on this event, please see the Events Calendar link.

http://cfcar.net