It depends....
on what you read.....so maybe just stop thinking and just do the work you love.
If the consumer is on
high risk alert but the commercial scene looks for the most part
pretty good then what is one make of it? In the world of specialization and micro niche, the commercial RE investors and entrepreneurs need the latitude to follow the bouncing ball of commercial trends by staying one bounce ahead of the reporting. This might be obvious to some or reactionary to others but in the mid run (next 5 years) multihousing looks solid and retail looks risky. Then again, people still want to invest in the fact that people
gotta eat and buy stuff and the conclusion might be from reading into too much and not seeing the forest for the trees or the reaction to the media action.. Maybe the best crystal ball are the instincts not the analysis? But hey, last time Adam checked
this was not looking so hot(or cool as it were) either.
Just remember the Lama's words next time your instincts conflict with the reporting:
"Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk."
Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated
There seems to be plenty of room to spread out, i.e.
more land for development, when looked at in a certain context. On the flip side, the traditional targets, i.e. the
middle class seem to be shirking and polarizing. Regardless of the perspective, a new opportunity will emerge for HOW we develop the raw abundance and the changing face of WHO do we do it for. What infills the urban scene will be replicated in new developments as we build out into the farmland. Its human nature to go with what's safe and do what others are doing but sometimes we need to recognize when a certain game has been played out.
If
Buffet's comments are further confirmation of our sheep-like behavior and sadly 'orgies are wildest at the end', then our lust for easy answers needs to be supplied with great ideas for maximizing and recycling what we already have before we see our abundance evaporate and our clients become unrecognizable... and it all 'turns back into pumpkins and mice.'
Adam has infill spaces and places looking for creative uses. Do you have creative uses looking for places and spaces?
Memories follow function, form will be a memory
The Guthrie Theatre on Vineland. Over the years it has been a place of beginnings, endings, smashes, flops, arrivals, departures...the list of events go on like the names of notable musicians and actors that performed there during its 40 plus year existence.
But the most notable inventory not moving to the river are the personal experiences this place helped create. Sure the performances and the building itself were significant but the emotions they helped co-create were the real tenants of the Guthrie.
Memories are meant to be mobile but a building can help them be more permanent and lasting. Appreciation manytimes comes only during the swansong but the lesson is well noted.....building cool spaces for people to Collect, Create, and Communicate are tremendously important. Technology can put these three C' into our living room but does it mean our memory will fade quicker or the signifigance less felt because we did not experience it in a common physical space? Sure its only a funneling point for many individual experiences but our emotional connection to steel and concrete (and maybe each other) can be made more real because of it.
Of course we do not keep buildings around for purely remembrances of days gone by but creating adaptive uses to existing structures can help more people connect to something common. Which in turn can lead to a stronger foundation for preserving a community and create more economic value. In other words, it can keep the neighbor in the hood and make a dollar doing it.
Thinking on this and looking for opportunties in commercial real estate, what are the most important places to your memories? What types of adaptive uses would you like to see for structures like the Guthrie? How about the Metrodome? What venues should be considered timeless and never be changed?
on what you read.....so maybe just stop thinking and just do the work you love.
