Good point. It's just the market doing what the market is going to do. Commercial real estate is at a low point right now in it's cycle. It will come back.
But I would urge people to take note of this. With all the fancy development tools (TIFs, et al) that our city has, the city is doing worse than the region as a whole. To keep it short, these tools don't work. Companies are going to locate whever they feel best. They simply use the possibility of various locations to maximize their hand outs. If we want to continue to grow in the long run we need a well run city that uses it's tax revenues as effeciently as possible. That way we don't give breaks to new developments while companies that have been around for 30 years pick up the slack.
Allen Graetz Lowry Hill
David Brauer wrote:
On Feb 4, 2005, at 6:51 AM, Victoria Heller wrote:
Brauer: This story is two years old! Beware selective information.
Heller: The following story is only one day old! Beware obtuse journalists.
"According to the most recent market numbers from United Properties, direct
office vacancy in downtown Minneapolis is still 20.9 percent, or 23.2
percent counting available sublease space". (Finance and Commerce, 2/3/05)
F&C headline from the same issue:
"Office downturn is part of market cycle"
That was my larger point: it is wrong to point to Minneapolis's vacancy rate as evidence the city is doing something wrong or "headed for Detroit." Blaming Minneapolis for the general, cyclical condition of the real estate market is, dare I say, selective.
Another bit of context: United Properties says the overall Twin Cities office vacancy rate is 18.9 percent - meaning Minneapolis is only 2 percent over the metro-wide average. If the city is doing something wrong, so is the whole region.
By the way, St. Paul's vacancy rate is 24.5 percent. Perhaps we should stop using them as an example to emulate.
David Brauer Kingfield
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