Published in Shopping Center Business, May 2001

Shopping malls, long the darlings of commercial real estate, have recently been experiencing rising vacancy, flat or declining overages and, in more instances than most would like to admit, declining values. While almost every mall today is faced with store turnover and vacancy decisions, some problems are much more serious than others. There are many solutions.  Albeit, some are simple, while others are very drastic.  And still others require de-mall conversions. The well-worn solution to mall vacancy is to rent vacant space to other retailers.  For well-located and tenanted malls and centers, this approach is the best course of action, and has been for almost the past 50 years. However, for malls that have been impacted by other mall competition, the loss of a major anchor, changes in trade area demographics, or the addition of major Big Box competition, solutions are usually more difficult. 
 
There are basically two primary approaches to the problem.