Smart City initiatives, public real estate strategic management and new venture creation

During the last decade, academics have been involved in an interesting debate around the development of the so called Smart City Initiatives. In the prevailing mind-set, the success of the aforementioned initiatives has been based on pillars like ICT infrastructures, human capital, mobility, environment etc.This chapter focuses on the role played by public property assets within the framework of the Smart City initiatives, with a specific focus on those programs that aim to stimulate the creation of entrepreneurial ecosystem. More in detail, the research provides a theoretical and analytical scheme helping policy makers opt for the most suitable choices relating to the public property portfolio management within the Smart city initiatives. In this perspective, real estate assets, especially in a period of strong financial constraints, might stimulate the birth of innovative firms, the growth of those ones already existing, as well as enhance the cities attractiveness for start-ups coming from different geographical areas. At this regards, this study shows some successful cases from the Mediterranean area.