"Ghostboxes" haunt communities across U.S.

[DainBramaged]

Hundreds of anxious shoppers watched as city officials used power saws to cut 2-by-4s during Home Depot Inc.’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for its 102,700-square-foot building center in Bismarck. Less than three years later, the home improvement retailer shuttered the underperforming store, leaving a big orange empty eyesore on the outskirts of town.

The building, sitting derelict and silent on acres of asphalt, is now listed for sale at $10.5 million. But there’s been little interest in the near windowless warehouse-like building that occupies a lot the size of a dozen football fields.

For potential tenants “it’s a hard pitch because for most uses it seems to be a bit of a tough fit,” said Brian Ritter, business development director of the Bismarck-Mandan Development Association.

As the recession takes its toll on big-box retailers, more communities across the country are having to confront not just the eyesore of giant empty stores, but also the loss of jobs and tax revenue that follow.

Many are trying to find creative uses for those near windowless monoliths. In Minnesota, one became a Spam Museum. In Texas, an indoor go-cart track. In Illinois, a church moved into an empty Wal-Mart. The new tenants, however, often generate less revenue for local governments.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31748428/ns/business-real_estate/

[slampoet]

1. I really wish that i was still throwing Raves. Some of these places are perfect and desperate.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. They are still building them here, in this economy. It boggles the mind how they think

these things will stay open.

[DainBramaged]

3. They never have and never will care about the communities they occupy

and the towns that worry about being turned down, are fools. Blight is the reward, but they are too too shallow to see it.

[flvegan]

4. Let them keep the asset on their spreadsheet, write off the taxes

give a X#-year lease to the city/county, and use it for a homeless shelter or something of the sort.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Excellent idea.

If this isn't a perfect opportunity to implement eminent domain, I don't know what is.

Cities like Wasilla can use them for sports arenas ... oh, wait ...

[demmiblue]

5. So sad... they wipe out the locally owned businesses...

and then they ditch.

A vicious circle, isn't it?

[Art_from_Ark]

6. WTF were they thinking?

Building a 102,700-square-foot building center in a relatively small town like Bismarck, North Dakota? With a parking lot that would cover several football fields? Did they think the whole state would go shopping there at the same time?

[SpiralHawk]

8. "Lets' convert them all to Spam museums." - Republicon Homelanders

"If we had another Republicon Chickenhawk in the White House, like Commander AWOL Bush or Dickie 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney, we could convert all these empty buildings to Spam Museums. Now that would be an example of Real Republicon Strategery & Leadershipiness."

- Republicon Homelanders

[Selatius]

9. Residential real-estate crashed. Now, watch commercial real-estate like this example crash. nt

[dysfunctional press]

16. yep. more and more strip malls are showing fewer and fewer tenants.

we are barreling down the road to interesting times.

[SoCalDem]

10. 108,000 sq. ft. of "big-empty" has been sitting vacant here for TEN YEARS

Home Base was doing a great business, and the center it anchored, had a movie theater, two cafes, an Arby's, a couple of small businesses, a bakery, and an IHOP..

It was always busy, and had a fantastic garden center, and THEN...Home Depot plopped a big-box about 6 blocks away, and a year later Lowes plopped another big box a few more blocks away.

Home Base "died", and so did the whole center. The only businesses left are the Arbys & the IHOP.

Our police have to patrol that shipwrecked shopping center, and of course no taxes are paid either. The Home Depot & the Lowes, are just across the street from where our town ends, and Riverside begins, so the tax revenues go ,not to US, but to Riverside.

[hedgehog]

17. That's the worst part - they always are just over the city line

so they don't pay taxes. Meanwhile, the city has to take care of repairing the roads leading to the store.

[Junkdrawer]

11. Many ex-retail sites around here are starting to get that "Life After People" look...

Cracked pavement - grass growing in the cracks....

http://www.history.com/content/life_after_people

[zbdent]

12. Wasn't Home Depot the one which slapped "Made in USA" labels

on boxes from China so that George W. Bush could have his photo-op?

[DainBramaged]

14. Almost (JB Logistics shipping company in St. Louis)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0122-10.htm

[Atman]

13. It's happening to giant malls, too. But I see a pretty cool option for them...

Most of the big shopping malls dotting the countryside, increasingly peppered with "FOR LEASE" signs instead of "SALE!" signs, are designed with food courts and most of the infrastructure necessary to turn them into low-cost housing for seniors or as largely self-contained communities. Many people already go to the mall hours before the stores open, just to use them as safe, smooth walking courses. Keep a few of the stores for groceries, a coffee shop and maybe a library or book store, plus a few eateries in the food court. Convert the rest of the storefronts to housing.

A large mall has hundreds of small-to-medium size spaces that could be converted to studios, lofts (high ceilings in malls!), and one/two bedroom apartments or condos. The space doesn't go to waste, you'd have a built-in tax/income base which would be fairly steady and predictable. I wish I had the money to do it! Alas, I'm no real estate mogul.

.

[MineralMan]

15. The old Galleria in the San Fernando Valley was

converted into a school. Not a bad use.

[SoCalDem]

18. They could also be converted into satellite facilities for community colleges

instead of continuously adding onto them, or building expensive buildings.

[Atman]

21. Actually, they are doing that at the Full Sail University near Orlando

Our son is going there. It's a school for media arts; sound and film production, CGI, motion graphics, etc. Not a community college, but a fully accredited university. Their original campus consisted of new buildings, but so many strip malls and big boxes have been going under in the surrounding community that they decided to buy them up and convert them. Now the campus is huge, and many classrooms are in big old storefronts with plenty of parking right out front. They've had to do minimal changes to the exteriors, they just created a graphic motif that carries throughout all the storefront classrooms and window signage. The outdoor garden center at an old K-Mart is now part of the dining area/cafeteria. Pretty ingenious use of space. And for what it's costing us in tuition, I'm glad they're not spending the money on fancy new buildings.

.

[LeftinOH]

19. Yet, when another big-box opens, they build the new one next to/across the street

from the "old" empty one- complete with acres and acres of NEW parking lot space & newly installed traffic lights, etc. The unwillingness to utilize existing space (the buildings and especially surface parking) is revolting.

[SoCalDem]

23. And all that asphalt keeps water from going back into the ground

It's no wonder there's so much trouble with urban/suburban flooding these days..

[DainBramaged]

28. That poor poor kitteh

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Atman]

24. Because they all want their distinctive look.

Raymore & Flannigan, Best Buy, Home Depot -- the look of the store is almost part of their brand, and that is much of the problem. A big porno store opened in an abandoned Raymore & Flannigan furniture store near us. It's funny to see the big tiled atrium at the entrance to the store decorated with maniquins dressed in crotchless panties and holding sex toys! But despite the fancy new sign that says "VIP" instead of R&F, it still looks just a Raymore & Flannigan.

.

[blue_onyx]

20. There are tons of empty stores near me

Near our mall there's: Service Merchandise, Circuit City, Best Buy, Sam's Club, 2 movie theaters, Cost Plus, Value City, Michael's, Dennys (soon to be Sonic), and Hollywood Video.

There's also an empty Walmart near me (they opened a new Super Center), as well as a Rite Aid, Sears Hardware, Linen n Things, and Payless. We have 2 malls that were torn down. One has been redeveloped with a Walmart. The other is on its way to being redevelopment....with a Walmart.

I hope these buildings find new tenants sometime soon.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

22. Rehearsal space, dance space, community theater space, art gallery space

a place for crafters to display and sell, a farmers market, holiday/theme sale space, job fair space, meeting rooms for community groups space, green industry promotion space, museum/exhibit adjunct space, homeless shelter space, animal adoption space,particle accelerator space . . .

I could go on and on, but I would think that a half with it city manager and a consortium of local groups could put all those spaces to good use.

[marions ghost]

29. "particle accelerator space"

:rofl:

you mean, we should be "community minded" and turn ghost boxes into recreational spaces??? what a radical thought. Too radical for Murka I'm afraid.

[spinbaby]

25. We have a batch that closed almost before they were open

In Washington, PA, our latest batch of box stores started sliding over the hill almost the moment they were built. Then the builder went bankrupt.

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/06/23/story9.html

[Mari333]

26. we have an empty Papa Johns ghostbox right near me

no one wants to buy it, its the shape of a Papa Johns pizza parlour. ugly and just sits there with a For Sale sign on it.

[paparush]

27. Housing for Homeless or truly kick ass skateboard park or food bank distribution site

or indoor marathon training ground.

[friendly_iconoclast]

30. Norwood, MA has one, plus a stillborn strip mall.

The former Home Quarters on Providence Highway was torpedoed by that chains' bankruptcy and a nearby Home Depot.

It has been empty for over a decade

To be fair, the HQ was poorly sited and the Home Depot is a for-real brownfield redevelopment (former Raytheon factory)

The strip mall has been complete for nearly a year, with no tenants and little hope for getting any in the near future.
Nice mural with local landmarks from the highway side. Then you turn into the parking lot and it looks like a never-used
movie set.