Commercial space provides eye on economy

I think you're in the latter half of 2010 and more so in 2011. I don't think we've seen the last of the layoffs. Projections are 130,000 more jobs [lost] in Massachusetts. And our business is all about rear ends in seats. If those layoffs continue, that will put more stress on the market. Still, walking around offices you're only seeing dribs and drabs of space available, not huge chunks of it. We're not a headquarters city anymore, so it hasn't affected us the way it has in some of the other markets.

How do you think real estate firms will weather the downturn?

In the last downturn, tenants overleased and landlords overbuilt. This time around, people were much more conservative in the space they took. So the saving grace of this market is the start-ups and midsized companies, it's not the giant firms. The reason Boston's commercial real estate market is not devastated right now is because little companies are still growing.