Dead malls are prime redevelopment sites

I plug in this morning and the lead story on CNN.com is about dead malls being a strain on communities. There are definitely parts of the country (maybe most) that are overbuilt when it comes to retail options like malls, power centers, strip centers, etc. With the American consumer pulling back (at least until the economic crisis passes), there will certainly be some pain felt by owners and managers of retail space as significant amounts of space will be going dark. We'll see that in most areas of Utah just like everywhere else.

Towards the end of the article it talks about how some of these dead malls have been redeveloped as lifestyle centers and walkable neighborhoods. I wholeheartedly agree that these sites represent awesome redevelopment opportunities. They are large parcels that have already been assembled, they are often in urban areas and have likely been a de-facto center of the community, they usually have utilities and other infrastructure in place, and they always have great transportation access. I attended a presentation yesterday by Dr. Arthur "Chris" Nelson who is the very highly regarded Director of Metropolitan Research at the University of Utah. He touched on dead malls as great redevelopment sites and added the fact that, with their proximity to freeways and other large thoroughfares, they are usually "transit-ready". There is usually plenty of right-away in existing roads to put a mass-transit line in. (I'll post about yesterday's presentations at another time.)

I'm working on a property in Ogden, Utah that fits this perfectly. The City of Ogden has been very proactive in the redevelopment of its downtown mall site. Great things are happening in downtown Ogden and I'll tell you all about it a little later when I have the time.

More to come.....