July 30, 2010

Hoff & Leigh’s Weekend Market Report
Hoff & Leigh, Inc.
Leasing, Sales, Management, Buyer Representation
4445 Northpark Drive, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO USA 80907
July 30, 2010

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All Market Average Office Building Sale Price PSF = $102.77 (UP $0.05 from last week)
We are currently tracking 90 office buildings for sale.
This is 826,478 square feet, which represents a total market value of $84,933,436.

All Market Average Industrial Building Sale Price PSF = $89.06 (DOWN $0.27 from last week)
We are currently tracking 74 industrial buildings for sale.
This is 924,969 square feet, which represents a total market value of $82,377,406.

To view our most recent Colorado Springs Business Journal Ad please click below
http://hoffleigh.com/Doc/7.30.10.pdf


Tim’s Market Report

I don’t know if your part of town was caught in the tempest, but as the fetching Mrs. Leigh so profoundly put it, “the darkest storms seem to come in the middle of the night”. All the granimals (If you don’t have one, you won’t understand) were upset; nobody got any sleep and if I miss some short putts at the EDC golf outing today, at least I’ll have an excuse – I’ll be a dead man walking.

I’m granimal sitting because Shannon went to Ft Jackson for Bryan’s graduation from the army’s Basic Combat Training School where he was selected as the #1 graduate from his basic training brigade (1,300 soldiers) and will receive the Soldier Leader of the Cycle award with special honors. I mention this because many of you know Shannon & Bryan and some of you had a hand in directing Bryan to the army. This is my way of updating & thanking you. Bryan found his path.

And that’s the point, isn’t it? Finding your path? Whether you’re an individual, a family, a business or a city . . . What do they say? “A plane without a glide path lands in the ditch and thinks it’s completed the mission successfully.”

How many folks work at things that are not their choice? How many run the family business because it was expected? How many CFO’s or doctors or lawyers wish they were bakers or chefs or forest service guides? Life is what happens on the way to fulfilling our plan and in many cases it’s unexpected.

And as you know, I began traveling down a pathway on a journey of personal discovery many months ago which led to my unexpected conclusion. With much hubris & bravado I announced that I was going to run for mayor. I made the announcement ahead of anybody’s schedule (except my own) on purpose. My intention was to set a new standard for those seeking the mayor’s office; that you’d actually have to figure-out the job description and become knowledgeable about city functions “before” you were elected - a novel approach. I thought my path led to the Mayor’s chair but ultimately concluded that it did not.

I’ve not stopped searching to find my way and because I’m very interested in the community conversation I have decided to run for an “at large” city council seat. True to form, this is a very early announcement. But, what the heck, we all know what early birds get and dipped in chocolate, it might be OK.

I’m still committed to job growth in the local economy and I believe that that growth should start from within. If we make this a city worthy of consideration, a World Class Destination, folks and their businesses will naturally wish to gravitate here. Think of the New Zealand model (a lush garden – a paradise on earth). They don’t pay anybody to move to New Zealand. In fact, I’ve been told that you have to prove you add substantial value to their economy before they’ll consider your application.

I’m still committed to the city employees & staff and plan to be their political advocate. Right now, they have no voice. And, no, they’re not the problem, their missing leadership is. But, as their advocate, I’ll expect them to respond in kind with excellence, team work and an attitude of partnership with the private sector. Look the enemy’s not us, it is the global economy.

I’m still committed to the neighborhoods. In fact, I’m working on a project right now to convert the 31st Street ditch (which is really Camp Creek) into a neighborhood amenity; and I’m committed to the creation of a downtown neighborhood walking mall on Pikes Peak Avenue from Nevada to Cascade anchored by the Mining Exchange Wyndam Grand Hotel on the East and the Antler’s Hotel on the West. Imagine the possibilities!

I’m still committed to the city - the entire city. We can be a city of greatness, but we have much work to do to get there. We’ll need partnerships & collaboration. We’ll have to figure out how to play in the sand box without kicking sand on each other.

Here’s one example. From 80,000 feet, I’m not sure the newly approved Copper Ridge Shopping Mall benefits the entire city.
Instead of the open prairie, did anybody consider locating the project as a re-fill (revitalization) on the central Academy corridor? If Copper Ridge is going to be so cutting-edge, folks would drive Academy to get there.

Did anybody consider a partnership with the already approved redevelopment-developers at Highway 24 & I-25? The infrastructure is in place.

Did the developers think about working together, merging land parcels and sharing a longer range vision that would have benefited the entire city instead of singular constituencies?

By the way, as to the argument that the new mall will create new sales, I’m pulling the BS card. There are only so many dollars in an economy. Period. Over construction of new retail space merely cannibalizes existing sales and therefore your neighbor. Period.

When you think of unbridled new development, keep this analogous story in mind. It was the winter of 1609 when our forefathers in Jamestown, so desperate with hunger cannibalized each other. From the Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia,

“. . . driven by insufferable hunger to eat those things which nature most abhorred, the flesh and excrements of man, digged by some out of his grave after he had lain buried three days and wholly devoured him; others, envying the better state of body of any whom hunger has not yet so much wasted as their own, lay wait and threatened to kill and eat them; one among them slew his wife as she slept in his bosom, cut her in pieces, salted her and fed upon her till he had clean devoured all parts saving her head.”

This is what happens when you don’t work together.

Would somebody please pass the bar-b-q sauce?

Keep it real.

Sincerely,

TJL

Tim Leigh

719-337-9551

Tim@HoffLeigh.com