by Norman Halls, contributor
HISTORY OF THE MALL; Built in 1828, the Arcade is the nation’s oldest indoor shopping mall and remains in the historic heart of Providence Rhode Island’s downtown. This beautiful structure with its distinguished Greek Revival columns, granite walls, and classic facades still stands barely touched through its more than 185 years. According to the history of shopping centers provided by Consumer Reports (1986, for other histories of the shopping center see Jacobs, 1985; Kowinski, 1985) shopping centers had their birth in the 1920’s in California where supermarkets would anchor and serve as a magnet for a strip of smaller stores. Malls were the retail, social and community centers of their communities. Indeed, shopping malls were the center pieces for rejuvenation of urban centers.
The competitive environment that a mall faces today is considerably different from what it faced in their early days when their primary competition was a downtown business district. Unfortunately, these too have not led to overwhelming success and acceptance. Malls are now being replaced with on-line shopping. The news comes as more consumers shop online and Amazon steals market share from traditional retailers. The industry’s been struggling to survive, with many companies closing physical stores or reorganizing altogether in bankruptcy. Some haven’t made it at all. It’s has put millions of square feet of store space back on the market this year, much of that within shopping malls.
Department store chain Bon-Ton went bankrupt, shuttering hundreds of stores, Sears has also filed for bankruptcy. Toys R Us, an anchor at many open-air strip centers across the U.S., filed for bankruptcy late last year and just last week closed all of its locations for good. Retailers were once rewarded for opening as many locations as possible, with square footage almost synonymous with the success of a business. With consumer shopping habits shifting online, brick-and-mortar stores have become expensive and redundant.
The fiscal implications of mall closings for states and localities are significant. Not only are jobs lost, corporate income tax revenues, and sales and use tax revenues foregone, but so are property taxes. “If a mall closes or goes into decline, you’re going to see declining property values in the area,” says Arthur Nelson, a professor of urban planning and real estate development at the University of Arizona. While a mall is observable to us, we should not overlook factory and warehouse buildings too. These building could be ready for reuse.
Malls must find creative ways to make use of empty building for example; scientific research, satellite college or manufacturing. A business incubator is a company that helps new and startup companies to develop by providing services such as management training or office space. Business incubators differ from research and technology parks in their dedication to startup and early-stage companies. Research and technology parks, on the other hand, tend to be large-scale projects that house everything from corporate, government or university labs to very small companies. Most research and technology parks do not offer business assistance services, which are the hallmark of a business incubation program. However, many research and technology parks house incubation programs.
Some have even transformed parts of the buildings into office parks, or medical facilities. Former stores in Mississippi and Indiana will soon house data centers. City officials in Boise earlier this year approved a plan to turn an abandoned mall into the home for a public charter school. The school had 550 students in grades K-10 last year and hopes to eventually grow to 1,000 students in grades K-12. The school has some of the highest test scores in the state.
Developers/owners who have concentrated on either office, retail, medical or educational uses but not all of those together, would need to build or acquire the special building permits for mixed-use development. While community support for re-positioning growing, a blighted development should be a no-brainer.
