Malls Into Homes

Would Converting Yorktown into micro apartments be a better use?

Creative Reuse Can Spur Commercial Deals

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

Back in the bricks-and-mortar days, malls were like an Amazon you could drive to: For that effort, you could buy almost anything you needed and get instant gratification. But as online shopping and the return of Main Streets have squeezed malls, many have fallen unused. If your market contains has any of these properties, reinventing them could put you at center of the deal.

Pop culture site Gizmodo recently looked at a number malls that have been repurposed, some more successfully than others. In Mountain View, Calif., for example, the Mayfield Mall opened in 1966, but lasted only until 1983. After the mall closed, the property was turned into office space – first for Hewlett-Packard and then, in 2013, Google, which uses the space for Google Glass development, writer Sarah Zhang says.

Outside Nashville, meanwhile, the Hickory Hollow Mall closed in June 2012 some months after its anchor stores closed, but reopened in 2013 with a new name and strategy providing people with both retail and community services. Nashville State Community College opened a satellite campus, and the mall also provides a library, recreation center, and the hockey rink for NHL team the Nashville Predators.

Another mall helped Joplin, Mo., when it needed a temporary high school after tornadoes ravaged the town in May 2011. It took only 55 days to repurpose the former Venture department store using movable walls to keep space organized yet flexible. With the permanent school newly open, the temporary site is again available to be reused.

And back in 2004, the Beech Park Baptist Church bought a third of what had been the Tri-County Mall in Oliver Springs, Tenn., opening a modern, 800-person sanctuary in what had been a 30-lane bowling alley. It also turned a former department store into classroom space.

Not all conversions gain traction, Zhang notes. Aside from the temporary high school in Joplin, the vaulted glass ceilings at the Galleria at Erieview in Cleveland inspired reuse as a greenhouse, growing herbs, salad greens, and fruit. The Gardens Under Glass project received attention from the New York Times and National Geographic, but lasted barely two years: The indoor climate was a breeding ground for aphids, and yields never reached satisfactory levels.

Other uses Zhang mentions include a medical center and mixed-use retail and residential spaces, with "microlofts" up to 450 square feet.

Source: "7 Dead Shopping Malls That Found Surprising Second Lives" (Sept. 18, 2014)

courtesy of http://realtormag.realtor.org/