[Ads-l] RES: ankle-biters

George Thompson george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Sat May 12 14:22:26 UTC 2018


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/business/hotel-
development-real-estate.html?rref=collection%2Fissuecollection%2Ftodays-
new-york-times&action=click&contentCollection=todayspaper&
region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=12&pgtype=
collection

Paragraphs 7, 8 & 9 follow (I had originally posted only para 9):

However, unfamiliarity with how hotels operate can hinder chances for
success. Stores or office tenants may lease space for several years, for
example, which can provide developers with rental income during challenging
economic times. But hotels rent out rooms daily, which makes them more
susceptible to downswings. Hotel brands typically require landlords to
spruce up the property every few years, said Andrea Olshan, chief executive
of Olshan Properties, a developer based in New York.

What’s more, enmeshing hotels in a mixed-use project only increases their
complexity and risk. Competition from newer hotels is another threat,
especially around successful and longstanding developments like Easton Town
Center in Columbus, Ohio, where Olshan Properties owns three hotels. In
fact, given the retail world’s cautious approach to expansion amid store
bankruptcies, mall closures and the intrusion of ecommerce, Ms. Olshan
worries less about retail development and more about new hotel construction.

“If you have a successful mixed-use center with lots of apparel stores,
you’ll attract tenants and it’s less likely that a shopping center will be
built near you,” said Ms. Olshan, whose firm expects to open a hotel and
retail development in Boston’s Haymarket district this year. “But with
hotels, we’re seeing more and more ankle biters.”

"Are the ankle-biters unforeseen problems, or ​foreseen problems, or what?"
I stick with that speculation.

GAT


On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 7:44 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hotels, eh?
>
> How about "bedbugs"?
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 6:05 PM, Mark Mandel <mark.a.mandel at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Thanks, that makes it quite clear.
> >
> > Mark Mandel
> >
> >
> > On Thu, May 10, 2018, 4:35 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Here is a link to a five year old article using "ankle-biter" in a
> > business
> > > context:
> > >
> > >
> > > https://www.forbes.com/sites/economaney/2013/03/24/the-
> > ankle-biter-economy-rises/
> > >
> > > On Thu, May 10, 2018, 4:26 PM Mark Mandel <mark.a.mandel at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > > But that doesn't preclude an extension to a meaning like "small-time
> > > > competitors" or "nuisances", as somebody suggested.
> > > >
> > > > Mark
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, May 10, 2018, 10:53 AM George Thompson <
> > george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > So, "ankle-biters" are children.  I can't argue against the
> evidence,
> > > > > though I don't recall even being bitten on my ankle by one.
> > > "Toe-biters" (their own toes) I could see.
> > > > > But the statement was  “But with hotels, we’re seeing more and more
> > > ankle
> > > > > biters."   “But with hotels, we’re seeing more and more children"
> > > Doesn't quite fit.
> > > > >
> > > > > GAT
> > >
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)
http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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