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  #161  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2011, 5:26 PM
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Strategic Planning for Stagnating Strips


23 May 2011

By Errin Welty

Read More: http://www.planetizen.com/node/49502

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.....

Changing demographics and shifting residential preferences have created a 'tweener' space between urban and suburban. This space encompasses most inner ring suburbs and their associated strip shopping centers. A 2008 study by the Center for Urban Environmental Research found that fifteen percent of these inner suburbs have reached a crisis point based on deteriorating economic conditions including declining retail sales and property taxes. These neighborhoods are at a tipping point. The 'soft times' of household growth and destination spending have gone, but the future is not necessarily bleak if municipalities and community organizations collaborate to take charge of re-envisioning the neighborhood for the future.

Not all inner ring suburbs are created equal. Despite the similarities in age of housing stock and overall development patterns, these areas represent a broad spectrum of demographic patterns. Distinguishing factors include the health of the center city that they surround, overall growth patterns of the larger metropolitan area, and fundamentals of housing supply and affordability in adjacent municipalities or neighborhoods. Identifying a community's current role will help inform the new vision and provide a benchmark of progress. Data collection should incorporate information about the commercial strip itself, its tenants and real estate and information on the surrounding neighborhoods. Some of the major elements examined should include:

Current Trade Area. Who is shopping at the successful stores? In many older strips, pockets of loyal shoppers may come from farther flung areas to visit a familiar store, creating a larger than expected trade area. There may also be a certain demographic subset that is attracted to the existing stores. Identifying these populations can help identify potential complementary tenants and inform marketing programs for existing businesses.

Retail Supply and Demand. What is being offered on the corridor, and how does it compare to what is being purchased? Overall trade area demand also illustrates the amount of retail space that is supportable in the corridor. Typically, this will be less than the square feet of existing space.

Physical Space. What is the makeup of stores that are occupied versus those that are vacant? Retail tenant preferences have changed, and many spaces may not meet the needs of today's stores. Some too-large or dated spaces can be reformatted, but others may more suitable for conversion to other uses.

Overall Land Use. What is the density of development in the corridor versus the rest of the city? Typically automotive strips are extremely low density. This can be an advantage, as such properties cost less to redevelop. Boosting density will enhance vitality and improve area market potential.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Once you have a firm grasp on what is in the corridor, and what is working, the next step is to develop a vision for the future. There are opportunities to create alternate visions, but this isn't the time for rose colored glasses and visions of out-suburbing the suburbs. Stakeholder input and community feedback are especially useful during this stage. Creating public consensus regarding broad project goals (i.e. should the project emphasize property value increases, local business startups, quality of life improvements, etc) is a critical indicator of future project viability when it comes to funding and measuring success. Potential big picture strategies that the community can help craft include:

Divide and Conquer. Most 1950s/60s strips long and monotonous. To create targeted opportunities and focus efforts, create sub-districts along the main corridor to support desired activities. Distances from one-fourth to one-third of a mile are the right size to be experienced and remembered by a visitor. Green Bay, Wisconsin, used this strategy in the economic restructuring plan for Military Avenue.....

Re-allocate Space. Based on the findings from the market analysis, identify opportunities to re-allocate commercial, retail and residential ratios to meet current and projected market demand. The City of Monona, Wisconsin, when evaluating the Monona Drive Corridor, determined that minimal new retail square footage was supportable given future spending projections and surrounding retail needs, while additional of office space and multifamily residential units could be supported.....

Reduce Red Tape. Identifying target locations may not be sufficient if zoning reinforces the status quo. Many districts require rezoning to accommodate a desired vision. A key part of the Bluemound Road Redevelopment Plan in the Town of Brookfield, Wisconsin was a recommendation that the Town create new corridor-specific zoning ordinances with associated design guidelines to facilitate increased densities and mixed-use design that would not have been allowable under previous ordinance language.....

.....



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  #162  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2011, 7:17 PM
J. Will J. Will is offline
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I feel some laws have to be set in place in the United States so that companies like Walmart cannot just abandon a building to build a new one 2 miles down the road. That happens here in Canada too, but the old building is always then occupied by something else, and not left for dead. For example, in the below picture the building occupied by "The Brick" (lower-right) used to be occupied by Coscto. Costco built the new building at the upper-left, and The Brick took over their old building. I don't know of any abandoned big box stores in the GTA. They always seem to by occupied by another retailer when the previous retailer builds newer, bigger digs. The U.S. should put some laws in place to ensure companies have to find someone to fill their old space before they leave if for new space:

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  #163  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2011, 2:02 AM
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Actually there is an empty Canadian Tire store in Scarborough(eastern Toronto). Canadian Tire built a new store a block away, and the old store has been vacant for well over 10 years now. But yes it usually is not as common here.
This has to do with many factors, one of them being that retail in Canada for the most part tends to stay put. They don't always decide to move a block away just to build a new store. They will just renovate the old store.
In the USA its always about moving to something better.
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  #164  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2011, 3:57 AM
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Not in cities with hard-to-get and expensive land and barriers to entry. Retail tends to stay in place and possibly densify over time.
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  #165  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2011, 4:53 AM
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Originally Posted by miketoronto View Post
Actually there is an empty Canadian Tire store in Scarborough(eastern Toronto). Canadian Tire built a new store a block away, and the old store has been vacant for well over 10 years now. But yes it usually is not as common here.
This has to do with many factors, one of them being that retail in Canada for the most part tends to stay put. They don't always decide to move a block away just to build a new store. They will just renovate the old store.
In the USA its always about moving to something better.
There's nothing wrong with the store moving to "somewhere better". But they should be required to find another retailer to fill the old space, whether they lease it out, sell it, or whatever. They shouldn't be allowed to just let it sit empty.

I wasn't aware the that CT in Scarborough, but that is extraordinarily rare in Canada. The old CT near my parents place in Mississauga for example is now an Asian supermarket.
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  #166  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2011, 6:18 AM
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I'm guessing that in many circumstances, empty big-box stores are a result of governmental land-use restrictions and the landlord's co-tenancy requirements.

The city/area residents won't accept anything unless it's the same kind of store that closed (e.g. Wal-Mart -> Target), while the other tenants in the mall don't want to see anything unorthodox move into that space that might lower the public's perception of the mall (no independent Hispanic markets, no thrift stores, no churches/houses of worship, no pop-up stores, no nightclubs, etc).

The landlord, who wants to lease out the space to offset the property taxes he's paying, is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The city's zoning ordinances restrict heavily what types of stores may open, and even if the ordinances do happen to allow for some other use, it has to be sufficiently upscale or the other, existing tenants will leave.
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  #167  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2011, 8:27 PM
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One interesting re-adaptive use that is becoming more common is "for profit" colleges taking over the space abandoned by department stores. There are several examples here in Chicagoland I have seen in the near suburbs in particular. I have never been inside one and it would be kind of weird to see how a former department store is converted into classrooms and offices.
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  #168  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2011, 8:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Will View Post
There's nothing wrong with the store moving to "somewhere better". But they should be required to find another retailer to fill the old space, whether they lease it out, sell it, or whatever. They shouldn't be allowed to just let it sit empty.
Actually American stores often do not sell their old store space or lease it out on purpose, to stop competition.

While not a big box, the Bon Ton department store chain is famous for this. They are well known in planning circles of buying out department store chains, shutting the downtown stores, and then not selling or leasing the buildings to anyone. They left a building in one American city vacant for over 10 years, and I think it is still vacant, even though they could have developed it.
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  #169  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2011, 3:21 AM
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^sounds like a viable long-term business plan.
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  #170  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2011, 3:30 PM
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Originally Posted by J. Will View Post
But they should be required to find another retailer to fill the old space, whether they lease it out, sell it, or whatever.
No, they should not be required to do anything of the sort.

On the other hand, I have no problem with the local taxing authority setting high property tax rates on the empty buildings. Make it expensive to do such things.
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  #171  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2011, 3:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by miketoronto View Post
Actually American stores often do not sell their old store space or lease it out on purpose, to stop competition.

While not a big box, the Bon Ton department store chain is famous for this. They are well known in planning circles of buying out department store chains, shutting the downtown stores, and then not selling or leasing the buildings to anyone. They left a building in one American city, vacant for over 10 years, and I think it is still vacant, even though they could have developed it.
They don't lease to competitors. If someone wants to open a huge pet store there they lease.
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  #172  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2011, 8:47 PM
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No, they should not be required to do anything of the sort.

On the other hand, I have no problem with the local taxing authority setting high property tax rates on the empty buildings. Make it expensive to do such things.
Yeah, you're right. They should be allowed to leave these huge, 50,000-100,000 square foot, single-story stores sitting empty while people drive further down the road to the store that used to occupy that old space. That is a perfectly acceptable use of land, and is not at all wasteful or sprawl-contributing.



Of course they should be required to either find another tenant to fill the old space or to sell the property to someone who will redevelop it into something else. There are NO benefits to the community to have all these huge, warehouse-sized store spaces sit empty, and the land going unused while they are building new spaces just down the street. Literally none. They shouldn't even be allowed to break ground on the new space until they have found a new use for the old space.
To suggest otherwise is ludicrous.
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  #173  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2011, 10:46 PM
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This says that only 6 US metros will see at least 1 million square feet of retail space built this year - Austin, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...-pipeline.html
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Mass of new retail in Austin pipeline

Austin Business Journal - by Cody Lyon
Date: Friday, June 3, 2011, 12:36pm CDT - Last Modified: Friday, June 3, 2011, 4:21pm CDT

Austin will see a million square feet of new retail space by the end of 2011 — representing the largest percent increase in the U.S. — according to a report by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services Inc.

That compares to the less than 100,000 square feet of retail space added in 2010. The million new square feet adds up to about 2 percent more retail stock last year.

Add to that, another 3.1 million square feet is under development in suburbs such as Pflugerville and Kyle. The company said only six metro areas nationally are forecast to see more than 1 million square feet of new retail space. Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C., are the others.
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  #174  
Old Posted Jun 9, 2011, 1:07 AM
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Imagine the music venues you could build in those caverns.
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  #175  
Old Posted Jun 9, 2011, 3:20 AM
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It's funny you should say that. The retail project in Austin that the article mentions - South Park Meadows, used to be just that. It was an outdoor music venue. It was mostly just open fields as the name suggests, and had no real structures. But there were some great concerts there. Area neighborhoods complained about the noise, and I think the venue was intended to only be temporary until development could be arranged.
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  #176  
Old Posted Jun 9, 2011, 3:24 AM
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Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas View Post
This says that only 6 US metros will see at least 1 million square feet of retail space built this year - Austin, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...-pipeline.html
With the exception of DC, it looks like it's going to cities with cheap land and decent economies. In DC's case, it's probably about the economy.

Expensive land and a decent economy is probably not a very good mix at the moment -- too expensive for a lot of surface parking, but rents too low to support going vertical.

I'm a bit surprised actually...cheap land can attract square footage (though generally in spread-out fashion), but those cities also saw a lot of growth, perhaps an overdose, in the boom years too. Cities with barriers to entry were less likely to overbuild.
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  #177  
Old Posted Sep 15, 2011, 9:42 PM
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The Incredible Shrinking Megastore: Retailers Think Outside the Big Box


Read More: http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/09/15...e-the-big-box/

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They lord over empty parking lots in Hazard, Kentucky; Twinsburg, Ohio; and Lewiston, Washington like the ruins of a lost civilization. Vacant Walmart stores are slowly decomposing in more and more American towns these days. More than 100 of them have been memorialized as part of the group Flickr pool known smugly as “They Sold for Less.” These empty husks — yet to be filled by any other retail tenant — are part of the detritus left behind by a paradigm shift in the real estate industry. Signs of the changing times, they tell us what kind of society we were before the bubble burst. Now, as the commercial real estate industry regroups, evidence is mounting that Walmart and other mega-retailers will take a much different form than they have in the past. The new American shopping experience, according to many industry observers, will be less “suburban big-box” and more “urban destination.”

- The demise of several mega-retail chains during the recession, including Circuit City and Linens ‘n Things, helped produce a vast oversupply of retail space, particularly that of the giant, boxy, just-off-the-interstate variety. Last summer, the research arm of giant commercial real estate firm Colliers International reported that there was nearly 300 million square feet of vacant big box retail space on the market — 34 percent of total retail vacancy left behind by a recession that walloped commercial real estate almost as hard as housing. Since 2008 alone, 120 million square feet of big box retail space has become available. To put such numbers in perspective, that is the equivalent of the total shopping center space in Cincinnati, Kansas City and Baltimore combined, Colliers reported.

- Walmart is joining other retailers in thinking smaller and more urban, says Ed McMahon, a fellow at the Urban Land Institute. “What the recession has made completely clear is that we have way too much retail,” McMahon said. “We are going from the era of the big box to the era of the small box.” Enter the “Walmart Express.” Generally, the opening of a Walmart store isn’t the kind of occasion that draws national media attention. Yet, in early June, ABC, Bloomberg News, and USA Today lined up in a parking lot in Gentry, Arkansas. This wasn’t a typical Walmart opening. Gentry, Arkansas is home to the first “Walmart Express,” a 18,000-square-foot, drug-store-sized prototype of the old, big-box heavyweight.

- Walmart plans to open 15 to 20 of the small stores — about one-tenth the size of a “Supercenter” — by the end of the year, mostly throughout the southeast but also including three in Chicago. By 2012, they plan to open as many as 350 a year, part of the mega-retailer’s strategy to regain its dominance over dollar retailers. Walmart isn’t the only retailer turning its sights on the urban market it once eschewed. Increasingly, retailers see urban areas as the one remaining growth market, said Bob Gibbs, a national site selection and planning consultant with Gibbs Planning in Birmingham, Michigan.

- “Retailers used to think that if they went to the edge of suburbia, that farmland would turn into housing,” Gibbs said. “They no longer want to do that. They want to be right in the middle of people, even if they’re lower-income than they’re used to.” Industry observers have long marveled that there are approximately 20 square feet of retail space for every U.S. resident, compared to three to four square feet per capita abroad. In urban areas of the U.S., however, the actual ratio is more like one resident to two square feet.

- Cynthia Stewart, a researcher with the International Council of Shopping Centers, says the movement toward urban areas is being slowed by a couple of factors. For one, urban site acquisition is traditionally more time consuming and expensive. And financing isn’t as easy to secure as it once was. Nevertheless, the market is in urban areas, she said. “That’s where the opportunities are, for sure,” she said. Another factor shaping the retail landscape has been the growth of online retailers. Again, this trend favors smaller stores in more urban locations, said McMahon.

.....



Another one bites the dust. A vacant Walmart in Lewiston, Washington. Photo: Flickr/Happy Vampire






WalMart's new micro-sized "Express" stores are about one-tenth the size of its Supercenters. Photo: ABC New






Increasingly, small retail locations, like Apple stores, serve as a showcase for the broader selection of items that are available online, retail industry observers say. Photo: MacStories

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  #178  
Old Posted Oct 28, 2011, 5:20 PM
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Montgomery seeks to control big-box stores' size


Read More: http://www.gazette.net/article/20111...mplate=gazette

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Big box retailers, such as Wal-Mart, would have to negotiate with civic organizations before opening a store in Montgomery County, according to a proposal introduced Tuesday. The bill, sponsored by Council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring, would apply to stores that are more than 75,000 square feet — larger than a football field. Ervin said she is seeking to control the size of retailers in Montgomery, pointing out Wal-Mart stores range from 99,000 square feet to 250,000 square feet. The average Home Depot is more than 100,000 square feet, she said, while the average supermarket is about 44,000.

- “If these big box retailers want to move in, they have to sign a binding agreement with the community, and the community has a major say in what that store looks like,” Ervin said. Community input could include whether employees are hired from within the county and whether the business uses green technology. Ervin said she has been working for months with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400 on the bill. The union, which represents supermarket employees, opposes big box stores, she said, because they put smaller retailers out of business.

- At issue is an effort by Lee Development Group to open a 118,000-square-foot Walmart, 13900 Connecticut Ave. The developer owns the land, which is vacant office space. The developer needs the county's planning board and council to approve a master plan amendment that would allow for retail use before Walmart can open. “We still believe the story ... is that [Ervin] is playing to a labor audience and anti-Wal-Mart audience, but working behind the scenes and possibly [the planning board] to facilitate the rezoning [that would allow Wal-Mart to open in Montgomery],” Stewart said.

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  #179  
Old Posted Oct 28, 2011, 5:21 PM
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New Tricks for Old Malls


Read More: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...condHighlights

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Sobered by store closings and the rise of online shopping, owners of U.S. shopping centers are filling space and drawing visitors by turning to unusual tenants like gun ranges and go-cart tracks. Mall giant Simon Property Group Inc. opened an aquarium in July at its Grapevine Mills mall near Dallas. Real-estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. put a fencing academy in a former Old Navy store in Florida's Tallahassee Mall, and a community theater on the lower level of a former Boscov's store in Harrisburg, Pa. Aqua Tots Holdings LLC, a business that teaches youngsters to swim, has expanded to 14 locations in Arizona, Texas and Georgia and has 10 more on the way, nearly all in former retail shops. Jumpstreet, an indoor trampoline facility, is buying or leasing former grocery stores, filling them wall-to-wall with trampolines and charging patrons for hourly access.

Perhaps the most unusual use of a former big-box store is William James's Arms Room gun shop and shooting range, which opened last year in a former Circuit City store south of Houston. Mr. James spent nearly $5 million to buy the 20,000-square-foot space and convert it into a shooting range, a price he considered a bargain compared with building from scratch. The Arms Room offers handgun training courses in addition to traditional shooting practice, all in a popular shopping center anchored by Target Corp. and Home Depot Inc. stores. "It was sort of providential," Mr. James said in his Arms Room office, surrounded by antique swords and modern firearms. "I never dreamed of a place like this."

Rising retail vacancies, and loosening rent demands from landlords at struggling shopping centers, are creating opportunity for tenants previously housed in community centers, industrial parks and home basements. "In the past, we've typically been in industrial parks because of the [low] cost per square foot," said Howard Picker, founder of Speed Raceway, which is preparing to open indoor go-cart tracks next year in former big-box stores in Colorado, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But retail landlords "are coming down on price and more willing to work with tenants like us," he said. The proliferation of "nonretail" tenants comes as traditional stores cede ground in U.S. shopping centers because of constrained consumer spending and decades of retail overbuilding in the U.S.

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  #180  
Old Posted Oct 29, 2011, 10:03 PM
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Originally Posted by J. Will View Post
Much of the new retail in suburban Toronto looks like the picture below I took from Google Streetview. The buildings will come to (or close to) the sidewalk, and the stores will sometimes have windows facing the sidewalk, but often the stores will have no entrance from the sidewalk, and you have to walk around to the parking lot side to access the store.



wow I never seen this in the US . Talk about car centric to the extreme.


This must be a Toronto thing.
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