All over the country retailers have been making tough decisions — to stay or not to stay. For some the answer is obvious and bankruptcy is unavoidable. For others closing some locations and downsizing retail operations is a strategy to stay the economy. No matter the decision-making process for the retailer, the result for many communities is vast, empty retail compounds.
Big box retailers like Circuit City, Linens n’ Things and Home Depot have vacated mammoth properties, some as large as 103,000 square feet. The LA Times’ James McPherson paints a daunting picture of the communities faced with lost tax revenue and huge facilities that attract vagrants and vandalism. The question becomes what could possibly fill such large, often windowless spaces and will they be able to replace the lost tax revenue. Uses for the abandoned buildings have included office space, an indoor racetrack, museums, hospitals and even a church.
At Huffington Post, Steve Rosenbaum documents the materialization of retail vacancies on the streets of New York. There, some of the city’s landmark big box stores are closing, making the state of things ever more apparent.
Provided that these vacancies will exist for a while, when the economy does rebound, what could be a viable alternative for buildings this large? The remaining retailers are experimenting with smaller footprints, like Walmart’s Fresh Market. Malls are in peril and shoppers have expressed fatigue with the big box, sterile white shopping environment. Is this the end of an era? Is the supercenter, mall or mega shopping complex gone forever?
