Dead mall

Vacant stores at El Con Mall in 2009, a dead mall in Tucson, Arizona, United States

"Dead" wing of the Shanghai Summit Shopping City in Shanghai, China in 2007

The former Dillard's wing in Tallahassee Mall in Tallahassee, Florida, United States, in 2011

A dead mall^[1] is a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or a low consumer traffic level, or that is dated or deteriorating in some manner.^[2]

Many malls in North America are considered "dead" (for the purposes of leasing) when they have no surviving anchor store (often a large department store) or successor that could serve as an entry into or attraction to the mall.

Without the pedestrian traffic that department stores typically generate, sales volumes plummet for almost all stores and rental revenues from those stores can no longer sustain the costly maintenance of the malls.^[3]

^[4]Without good pedestrian access smaller stores inside malls are difficult to reach.

The now-vacant anchor store position may be referred to as a ghostbox and the outline of where signage once indicated the branding or trademark of the former anchor as label scar.

Word origins

Dead mall is a commercial real estate (property) term that has its origins in North America.

In many countries like Australia or Canada -- the cyclical gross surpluses of rentalable retail space have not been as profound as in the US -- so no similar terminology evolved in Commonwealth English.

In translation

• deutsch: totes Einkaufszentrum
• norsk: dødt kjøpesenter
• polski: Martwe centrum handlowe

Changes in the retail climate

In many instances, a mall begins dying when its surrounding neighborhood undergoes a socio-economic decline or a newer, larger mall opens nearby.

Structural changes in the department store industry have also made survival of these malls difficult:

A few large national chains have replaced many local and regional chains, and some national chains

• US typical example : Montgomery Ward & Woolworth's are defunct
• Canada : Eatons, Zellers and Woodwards are defunct

Hence, in some areas or suburbs there are insufficient traditional department stores to fill all the existing larger lease area anchor spaces.

In the US (but to a lesser extent Canada) newer "big box" chains (such as Walmart, Target and Best Buy) normally prefer free-standing buildings rather than mall-anchor spaces.^{[citation needed]}

Attitudes about malls are also changing. With changing priorities, people have less time to spend driving to and strolling through malls, and during the Great Recession, specialty stores offer what many shoppers see as useless luxuries they can no longer afford.

In this respect, big box stores and conventional strip malls have a time-saving advantage.^[5] The rise in big box stores since the 1980s left malls reliant on an older business model that could not change with the times. 21st-century retailing trends favor open air lifestyle centers, which resemble elements of power centers, big box stores, and strip malls over indoor malls. The massive change led Newsweek to declare the indoor mall format obsolete in 2008.^[6]

Some malls have maintained profitability, particularly in areas with frequent inclement weather (or otherwise weather undesirable for outdoor activities, such as shopping in an open air shopping/lifestyle center)^{[citation needed]} or large populations of senior citizens who can partake in mall walking.^[7] Combined with lower rents, these factors have led to companies like Simon Malls enjoying high profits and occupancy averages of 92%.^[8] Some retailers have also begun to re-evaluate the mall environment, a positive sign for the industry.^[9]

An empty corridor in the mostly vacant New South China Mall, one of the symptoms of the Chinese property bubble.

Redevelopment

Dead malls are occasionally redeveloped. Leasing or management companies may change the architecture, layout, decor, or other component of a shopping center to attract more renters and draw more profits.

Sometimes redevelopment can involve a switch from retail usage to office or educational use for a building, such as is the case with Park Central Mall in Phoenix, the Eastmont Town Center in Oakland, California, and the Coral Springs Mall in Florida.

As a last resort, the structure is demolished and the property redeveloped for other uses, known as building on a greyfield site.

In places such as Vermont (with a strict permitting process) or in major urban areas (where open fields are long gone) this greyfielding can be much easier and cheaper than building on a greenfield site.^{[citation needed]} A good example of this type of redevelopment is Prestonwood Town Center in Dallas.

See also

• Deadmalls.com

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dead malls.

• Article about the Dead Malls Competition
• Labelscar, Retail History