Growth and Change

It’s almost as though the Mall knew I was talking about it.

My apologies to those of you well-informed people out there in HoCoLand who already knew this. I just learned this morning that General Growth Properties is no more, having been acquired by Brookfield Property Partners. You can read more in this article in the Business Monthly. Speaking of well-known businesses changing hands, the Business Monthly also took on new owner and publisher Daniel Medinger this year.

Both of these things make me think about the late HoCo blogger and man about town (citizen laureate?) Dennis Lane. Not only would Dennis have known about the possibility of this acquisition long before it happened, he very likely would have been writing a column about it in the Business Monthly. Oh, how I miss the depth of his background knowledge and the wit and wisdom of his commentary on commercial real estate. 

Giving credit where it is due, I note that the possibility of this transaction was discussed in the Celebrating Columbia Facebook Group as early at December, 2017 when the Wall Street Journal covered the news that an initial offer was made. Certainly some top notch Columbia-watchers there. I don’t remember that original discussion at all, so I clearly wasn’t paying attention. Hmm.

Doesn’t somebody out there want to write the fun, interesting, informative, and accurate HoCo commercial real estate blog? Since most people feel that the era of blogs is already over, I’m not optimistic that anyone will answer this call. And somehow I don’t feel this is a topic that can be successfully covered by an Instagram account.

Dennis wrote for the love of it. As far as I know, he wasn’t driven by a desire to monetize the blog as a source of personal income. Most people who have the expertise and connections necessary to write about local commercial real estate today would probably need it to help pay the bills in some way. The gig economy has made the creation of second or third jobs or what is known as “a side hustle” a necessity, not a hobby.

In the meantime, maybe I’d better subscribe to The Business Monthly.