Raise the Hammer

By your comments I am to assume that you KNOW more about these buildings than the owners do. That you KNOW the foundations are sound. That you KNOW the floors aren't sagging. That you KNOW the basic services electric, HVAC and plumbing are just dandy.

Have you ever owned a century building? Have you ever worked on a century building? Do you KNOW anything about century buildings? By the way you write about them I bet the answer to all is a resounding no.

I have owned and worked on century buildings. The costs are huge. The plumbing in these old buildings is in all likelihood reaching the end of its life-cycle unless it has been replaced in near past. Ditto for the electrical which was not original and was added later and may very well have been added to at least once and yet today is likely to be totally inadequate. I doubt that these buildings have AC throughout. In order to make them desirable in this day and age they need to have AC. That is just a start there are so many issues with these old buildings that the price to restore them quickly becomes prohibitive and that is why they get torn down and replaced. If you disagree with the owners then why not step up to the plate and fork over some money and buy them from Blanchard and then you can do with them what you think is right.

Rents in the core especially in this type of old building are very low. People just don't want to live in the core. People live there because they cannot live in nicer better places. Lets make the core better and nicer then people will want to live there and finally the city will turn the corner and stop being supported by the burbs.

How many properties have you branded? Or promoted? Or marketed? I am dieing to find out. In order to think that you can give advice in this area to man who has built up a sizable business doing exactly that then your answer must be truly impressive otherwise your offer is just pretentious.

I suspect but do not know that actually you have done none of the above. I suspect but do not know that what you are really good at is spending other peoples money because you cannot spend your own to do the same kind of project.