Thanks to Michelle Hillman of the Boston Business Journal for including The Newbury Line in her column…an excerpt appears below.
You know times are tough on Newbury Street when real estate owners take to the blogosphere and start hurling bombs at their competitors.
One landlord is taking marketing to a whole new level, for better or worse.
At first glance, The Newbury Lines Web site seems pedestrian enough it gives specs for the 22 buildings totaling 175,000 square feet on a mile stretch of Newbury Street owned by Taurus Investment Holdings and UrbanMeritage LLC. Launched in August, the site lets retailers and brokers download brochures and floor plans. It also features a blog of the same name and directs visitors to follow The Newbury Line on Twitter.
Were trying to get some more excitement back on the street, were trying to develop a following, said Mike Jammen, owner of UrbanMeritage and principal in The Newbury Line.
Thats no understatement.
The site itself is straightforward, highlighting the benefits of living and working along the so-called Newbury Line, but take a look at the blog and the gloves come off. It takes aim at the media and neighbors, and even uses the recent flooding of the Prudential Center as an opportunity for self promotion.
On the day of the Prudential Center flooding, when 2,000 people had to be evacuated and the center closed not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars in damage for its owners, Boston Properties Inc.The Newbury Line featured this post titled Prudential Center Flooding. It reads: Great time to have lunch and shop on Newbury Street! No water here … just plenty of sunshine!
Good thing no one was seriously injured during the flood.
And take this entry from Aug. 31, where the Newbury Line blogger takes a Boston Herald reporter to task for not writing a favorable news article about its recent retail leases. The post, titled Openings … Good News (Does the press care?), includes a link to the Herald article and reads, Lets see … Madewell opened in February, Pinkyotto in May, 7 For All Mankind in August, Ben Sherman and S. Kuhlman in September … and that is just on The Newbury Line. Interesting how all this positive news doesnt seem to make the newspapers. … The Newbury Line recently wrote to a Herald fashion columnist and mentioned all of these openings, which were overlooked (except for Ben Sherman, which she had the wrong address for) in her recent column that included the words Is Newbury Street Down and Out? What do you think … could she have spent a little more time researching the subject, or do people buy papers to read bad news? Ouch.
Each of the blog entries (which do not have names attached to the posts) about a new store coming to the Newbury Line ends with the tagline (Tenant name), not at Copley, not at The Prudential Center, only on The Newbury Line.
The blog also takes aim at the Boston Globes coverage in a post titled Some Good News … Shhh! Dont tell the Globe on Aug. 3 and again on Aug. 9 where a welcome entry to new readers states, Despite the belief of the Boston Globe, the death of Newbury Street has been greatly exaggerated.
Jammen admits there is definitely an intended edge to the blog because it is pretty boring reading if its just about openings.