Boston Titletown? LMAO. Add up all the championships in every major sport and Boston still doesn't have as many as the Yankees do by themselves. Titletown---ROTFLMAO.
And this is exactly why you are seeing massive vacant commercial space right now. All those luxury & big retailer businesses were running on cheap credit. Where are they now? Either gone or doing 60%+ off sales as they count the weeks till they have to pull the plug. I can tell you really do not know what happened in NYC over the last few years. Greedy landlords were squeezing out long term loyal tenants because they saw green in their eyes. Everyone was jacking up commercial lease rates to the max, trying to get the next new tenant willing to pay absurd rates. Now it's biting them all in the ass. This happened with residential too. You must not live in NYC, cause it does not sound like you have seen the growth in vacant space. And it's just the beginning. That's the result of building overpriced unsustainable crap. There is no demand for that space and the small local businesses which made this city so unique are long gone. What now?
I do know what happened in NYC over the last few years. I've been living in it. I've watched at the price of apartments increased and I moved in with a roommate because of it. You can't blame this on greedy landlords. How can you explain why all of the sudden landlords turned greedy? Why didn't they do this 10 years ago? If the prices fall enough, as they should, people will move back into the buildings. I live downtown and I have seen the growth in vacant spaces. Landlords are still trying to hold prices higher than they should be. Nobody is moving in because of it. Residential prices have started to fall, but the commercial real estate bubble hasn't fully popped yet. Once the price of commercial fall estate falls to reasonable levels, these vacancies will fill. I agree that this is what happens when you build "overpriced sustainable crap". But I think that things will turn around. It might take a while, but when prices come down, so will people. http://robparis.blogspot.com/
"creating an artificial market" for all retail rents ------------------------------------ Manhattan retail brokers have long voiced awe over how much banks paid for new branches even making first offers that were higher than asking rents. JPMorgan Chase got $25 billion in TARP dough. Three years ago, while the bank was dumping billions into subprime mortgages, it took a space in the GM Building for around $1,100 a square foot perhaps twice as much as for any previous retail bank lease and "creating an artificial market" for all retail rents, said Lansco President Alan Victor. A few million bucks extra a year for Manhattan branches are peanuts compared with the billions banks blew on worthless loans. But some view it as demonstrating that banks "have no idea of the value of money," as a prominent retail broker who asked not to be named put it. This broker said, "They spent like drunken sailors. We could only shake our heads and laugh at the offers that came across our desks. Spaces we pro-formaed at, say, $100 would routinely fetch double that from a bank. "To top it off, they insisted on locking in these rates for absurdly long periods of 15 or 20 years. Because they always signed with the parent corporation there is no way to get out of these absurdly overmarket obligations that will haunt them for years." Prudential Douglas Elliman's Faith Hope Consolo said that if a location "got competitive, it became an auction." Chase, Commerce Bank, now known as TD Bank, and Bank of America fought it out over a site at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street. Chase won by paying $350 a foot in a location where the going rate was "$250-$275 on its best day," she said. Now, Cory Zelnik, a principal of Zelnik & Co., said banks "are taking a more realistic, almost normal approach. Those still looking to expand are much more prudent." Cushman & Wakefield's Joanne Podell laughed, "The bidding wars don't happen any more since I picked up TD Bank as a client." She said that although TD Bank, with 30-odd branches, wants more, "We're only going to pay rents that are rational." RKF principal Robert K. Futterman defended the banks: "I don't want to be contrarian, but I don't believe banks had complete disregard for occupancy costs." Futterman, the leasing agent for retail space at the new apartment tower at 200 W. 72nd St., reasonably enough declined to comment on rumors that one bank has a pending deal, negotiated pre-crash, for an astronomical $600 a foot. It will be very revealing to see if that deal gets done and at what price. cfont on link. http://www.nypost.com/seven/03242009/business/banks_rental_sanity_161016.htm
have you seen the women in boston? ugh. I feel sorry for men over there. NYC condo prices dropped 10% again. heard it on trade the news today
Some how the top rated pizza joint is in phoenix,az Even Oprah rated it #1 and she is from chicago! (figured she would front run for a pizza joint in her own area) she has eaten alot of pies in her day
i live in a direct water front suburb of manhattan, so close that if you go down 57th st and don't stop for the river you will be in my livingroom. I am in manhattan several times a week, i note some changes but things are still chugging along. i don't see these sub 2k one bedrooms in doorman luxury buildings, etc. i did get 75% discounts on several dream watches recently but that comes with the overall slowing. there has not been any decrease in tunnel or bridge traffic. manhattan is still alive and well as far as i can tell.... on a positive note, the cipriani platinum bull has RETURNED!! this can only mean one thing.... but note the 90% off window across the street---interesting surf
Weehawken sucks. Nothing to do there except Frank's and Arthurs landing (and neither of them are that good). Step it up and move on the water in Hoboken.