Re: [pf] Abandoned Malls, Suburban Blight

by Lisa Perry

21 December 2000 16:42 UTC

> Now the national chains are dealing communities a second blow. They are
> vacating their existing stores to build bigger outlets, leaving the
> landscape littered with dead malls, abandoned strip developments and empty
> big-box superstores.
> 
> According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, of the five
> billion square feet of retail space in the country, fully half a billion
> sits empty. That's 11,000 football fields worth of dead real estate,
> surrounded by thousands of acres of asphalt.
> 
> What can a city do with the shell of an old Wal-Mart store? Not much. It's a
> problem plaguing planners and local officials, who are struggling to contain
> the spread of this new retail blight.

This may be really simplistic, but could a town or developer insist 
that Wal-Mart (or other corporations) make an approved use of 
the former facility if they are given "permission" to build a new 
site?  What if these huge buildings, like a Wal-Mart store to carry 
the example further, were turned into housing for the homeless with a 
indoor gym nad play area for children and the outside parking lot 
turned into a park?  I'm sure there would be zoning restrictions of 
some sort that wouldn't allow this.  The huge store could be turned 
into one large, public YWCA type gym, complete with basketball 
courts, a climbing wall, handball court, etc.  Thinking outloud here.

When we lived in Chicago years ago, an old large building (not as big 
as a Wal-Mart) was turned into an incubator site for new businesses.  
There was a central, shared receptionist that handled calls for all 
the new busiinesses, and the small offices were built in a hub around 
the receptionist and shared copier and other needed office equipment, 
including a shared kitchen facility.

When we lived in Charleston SC, two good sized grocery stores were 
abandoned so that they could build larger, more upscale stores just a 
couple miles down the road.  This larger-is-better scenario isn't 
just limited to Wal-Mart as we're all finding out.

Lisa