"Their speculative approach was essentially unheard-of locally, but the two believed that if they built the office space, tenants would come."
That's awesome; "built it and they will come" - an approach I have recently overcome the fear of, due to them never coming on a couple projects I learned from.
I appreciate how they disliked borrowing in the early stages, too.
"Build it and they will come" works a lot better with land, since land is pretty finite and people tend to want to do something with it. Also see the adage, "location location location".
Online mindshare, on the other hand, is basically infinite and unless there's a path to discovery, there's not really any reason for people to show up.
That's awesome; "built it and they will come" - an approach I have recently overcome the fear of, due to them never coming on a couple projects I learned from.
I appreciate how they disliked borrowing in the early stages, too.