Worcester Business Journal
December 2024
I used to joke that Jim Umphrey was the most informed professional in the Central Massachusetts business community. In fact, WBJ caused a minor stir with Umphrey among the region’s movers and shakers when we entitled a podcast episode “Worcester’s most well-informed businessman” because it featured an interview with him.
Of course, every joke has some degree of truth. As the president of one of the two most prominent real estate brokerages in Central Massachusetts, Umphrey has the inside track of what businesses are moving into the region, which ones are leaving, those who are expanding, shrinking, and redoing their mortgages and leases in the face of economic headwinds. He knows what types of businesses – ranging from life sciences firms to well-known restaurants – commercial landlords want in their buildings, and how governments are incentivizing (and disincentivizing) the businesses they want to move into their communities. The same most-informed joke applies to Umphrey’s business partner Will Kelleher IV at Kelleher & Sadowsky, too.
And this is why the real estate industry, particularly commercial real estate, is at the heart of all business journal coverage, including at Worcester Business Journal. More than just a collection of simple listings of property transactions and proposed developments, the real estate beat is key to understanding the inner workings of the Central Massachusetts economy.
Manufacturing is the region’s largest industry by economic output, health care is the largest by employment, and higher education might have the most outsized prominence; but all three of them are tied to the real estate industry, along with basically every other industry: nonprofits, retail, banking & finance, transportation, tech, the Worcester Red Sox. If UMass Memorial Health buys a parking lot, or a manufacturer decides to sublease half its space, or the WooSox sign a very favorable lease on a baseball stadium, you gain an enhanced understanding of their operations and plans for the future.
Since WBJ jumped into real estate coverage with both feet about five years ago, we noticed the stories from that beat are almost always the most-read stories on WBJournal.com. More than any of the more prominent industries, our readers want to know what’s going on with real estate.
That brings us to WBJ’s newest special edition, our inaugural Real Estate Report, which we’ve tied to our usual end-of-year Economic Forecast issue. With stories from the very capable mind of Eric Casey, WBJ’s managing editor and Real Estate Insider beat reporter, this annual edition is designed to be a summary of all the happenings of the industry from the past year and a look forward to the industry trends in the coming year and beyond.
Real estate is the core industry beat of Worcester Business Journal, and this special edition is meant to make you, too, one of the most well-informed professionals in Central Massachusetts.
By Brad Kane, editor of Worcester Business Journal
