What could be more imposing or inviting to the aspirational investor than a gleaming office tower? But don’t judge a building by its façade. Office has been the worst performing property type during the past 20 years, according to data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF). Office has not even been among the top two since 2007.

Then again, even the most rudimentary investor is well schooled in the maxim that past performance is not an indicator of future performance. NCREIF has lent its credibility to such thinking with regard to office, as the organization’s latest paper posed (and then answered) this question: Why would anyone want to invest in office?

The answer is that office can pay off quite nicely, depending on where that office space is located. Another maxim comes into play here, the nauseatingly repetitious though rock-solid dictum that r