Ouch! New York Times reporter Charles Bagli was given the uncomfortable task of telling the world – including all those already grouchy, NYT shareholders – this morning that the Times made a colossal business blunder in not holding onto its 1913 headquarters a little bit longer.

Bagli packages the wince-inducing news with all sorts of reporting about how New York office space rents have soared in the last couple years, but it doesn’t do much to soften the blow of the cold, hard numbers: Two and a half years after the Times sold its W. 43rd Street headquarters for $175 million, buyer Tishman Speyer Properties turned around and put the aging building on the block for $500 million.