Re: Filene's
I know that comment is a jab at real estate branding. Ever since my involvement in a project in Las Vegas and one in Miami, I am all of a sudden a gigantic cheer-leader for. I then worked on a smaller project here in New England where the developer brought in Boston's big real estate branding firm, and the proof was in the signed leases.
So, check out that law firm's retention rates and interview their HR department in four years, and see whether the new crop of ivy league lawyers view them as a first-rate law firm or a secondary one. The audience for office users is the employees not the law firm's clients. The biggest problem is going to be JP Morgan... they are going to see a mass exodus of talent in the next three years, moving to an unbranded building on D Street in the middle of nowhere...
This isn't my opinion, there is a lot of research and precedents to support it. MIT's Sloan school put out a very dense research report on the effects of real estate branding just four years ago. Anyone who develops real estate should read it. There's this incredible, inexpensive tool to add value that the nationals are embracing, but the local developers just don't get.
I'll shut up now! I like pretty buildings. One Franklin is bland from head to toe.