[Keith_McClary]

The Big Box Afterlife
What will become of those empty old buildings?
by John Herrman June 16, 2015

Big box stores are the lowest-hanging science fiction prompt in any given town. Big box nostalgia is weak, so thinking about these stores clearly is easier. What, you wonder as you drive by, will happen to the big old Circuit City at Crossroads Plaza or Windermere Village or whatever? The building that used to be a Borders that became a Gap that became a vacant hole? The Walmart on the edge of town that was closed for “plumbing problems?” All those doomed malls, and the big multi-story anchor stores at the end of their long pedestrian halls?

Are people going to live in them? Giant libraries are a nice option. Some old stores have already been turned into large churches; in Florida, I saw an old supermarket that had been turned into a for-profit college. Maybe they could be adapted into enormous low-rent coworking spaces for slightly pre-automation jobs such as “customer support” and “content production.” Maybe they could be turned into extremely weird parks!

A lot of people are thinking about this more seriously: thousands of large purpose-built structures, many composed mainly of single large rooms with no windows, are not easy to cheaply convert into something else. They are referred to as “ghostboxes” and there are going to be a lot of them.
...

[Ibon]

The Big Box Afterlife
What will become of those empty old buildings?
by John Herrman June 16, 2015



A lot of people are thinking about this more seriously: thousands of large purpose-built structures, many composed mainly of single large rooms with no windows, are not easy to cheaply convert into something else. They are referred to as “ghostboxes” and there are going to be a lot of them.
...

One idea, Replace the roof with transparent polycarbonate roofing material and grow hydroponic food. Add windows and fans and eliminate air conditioning for temperature control. Keep 1/8 of the space insulated for temporary refrigeration and storage of veggies until shipping .Another 1/8 for housing the workers who are displaced suburbanites.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

No one saw this?
How An Abandoned Walmart Became America’s Biggest 1-Floor Library

[Pops]

If you read through to the end of the article it talks about Amazon killing the box as point of sale and distribution center and then buying it up and ...
turning it into a distribution center with the point of sale online and additionally using "customers" to do the delivering.

Round and round it goes, LOL

But really, if you consider the structure of a mall or an apartment building they are nothing but a weather skin and what is on the inside doesn't matter. Right now it is cheaper to simply build new to suit rather than remodel, mainly because you can't outsource remodel carpenters and so they get a good wage. But at some point, that may not be the case if labor is cheap and materials are relatively more expensive. Then, remodeling might be more attractive and that pre-made weather skin might be pretty valuable.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Gee, the world changes. Businesses come and go, and the buildings they inhabit are repurposed -- or are torn down and replaced. The Walmart I shopped at for many years replaced a defunct run-down Hills department store and the surrounding shopping center.

Perhaps finding ways to intelligently re-use such space will provide jobs in real estate, construction, etc. as is normal.

So if the economy is chugging along more and more like normal, I guess such "news" is equivalent to economic doom porn? (It's not as if there aren't plenty of REAL issues to deal with like climate change, pollution, overpopulation, and excessive (and still escalating) debt).

[MD]

Well isn't this a dark thread?

I see empty and abandoned building all over south Florida, at the same time new ones are being built.

There is an assumption in the doomer world that demand will somehow evaporate.

Never forget that humanity is hungry. Ravenously so.

For everything.

[Lore]

Climate refugee relocation centers.

[Plantagenet]

Why not convert them all to Tesla and Volt Dealerships (underwritten by a generous government subsidy to GM and Tesla, of course).

There would be plenty of space for a nice showroom, poshy offices for the salespeople where the buyers will buy the cars and sign up for various tax breaks and subsidies, and an auto repair shop in the back. And as a bonus, the box store parking lots can be converted to EV charging stations.

its a win-win!


And to think this used to be a Wal-Mart!

[Newfie]

Why wonder, come to NJ and see how it is done. I am reminded of Rt 130 from Camden to Burlington as an example. The stores sit empty, for years, an eyesore. They may be reconstituted as a commercial venture, or eventually torn down,

Innovative uses are few.

[Keith_McClary]

The stores sit empty, for years, an eyesore. They may be reconstituted as a commercial venture, or eventually torn down,

Or neither: