Sensationalistic reporting [as appeared in Boston's Downtown Sublease Space Jumps 651%] is of little value, and only serves to excite the uninformed and unthinking. This is the same as suggesting that a building boom has caused office inventory in Newton, IA to jump by 600%, when in reality, a build-to-suit was completed for Maytag. Without a base number, a percentage increase is meaningless. The only thing that comes close to providing a base number is the 6% overall vacancy rate, which presumably includes the 651% increase in sublease space.
I have difficulty believing that anyone in research at Spaulding & Slye(the local Colliers office) would be so careless as to throw out thesenumbers without putting them into the proper context, which wouldsuggest that Mr. Moore's comments were spun to say what the reporter wanted to say.
Getting news articles, especially from sources that we don't [now] subscribe to can be a very valuable service. But duplicate articles conveying the same news with different spin, and meaningless articles such as this, consisting of nothing BUT spin) only serve to clutter our inboxes and waste everyone's time.
Bruce A. Lehnertz
Principal Capital Management LLC
Des Moines, IA
Dear Bruce:
Thank you for taking the time to spell out so completely the perceived inaccuracies of our recent story, but we need to set the record straight.
Our readers are not, as you say, "uninformed and unthinking." They are industry professionals who understand local market conditions. They do not need to be lead by the hand through the subtleties of local real estate cycles, and we fully expect them to grasp our stories from the standpoint of their own local knowledge. Which makes it interesting to me that yours was the only letter of complaint.
There is a great gap between spin and reportage. Journalists report. Yellow journalists spin. GlobeSt.com has a record of accurate reporting that is unparalleled in this industry, and this held true in Naomi Grossman's news story, which I stand behind 100%. I have a copy of the Colliers report and indeed, the sublease space increased 651%--according to them. Please note we also went to lengths to describe the conditions behind such an increase--to provide background and substance to the claims. To that extent, your "Maytag" analogy falls flat. We covered all the bases.
If we did not cover the story to your liking, that is regrettable. Yes, there are other online news services you can subscribe to. While I appreciate your "business," I can't believe you haven't used more than one service to stay abreast of your market. To not scan the other websites would be as foolish as avoiding GlobeSt.com.
The Editors
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John Salustri
John Salustri has covered the commercial real estate industry for nearly 25 years. He was the founding editor of GlobeSt.com, and is a four-time recipient of the Excellence in Journalism award from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
