Post by Tomspy77 on Mar 28, 2015 16:07:36 GMT -6
www.thenational.ae/business/retail/retail-ghosts-that-haunt-america
A former Borders bookstore in Chicago’s Beverly neighbourhood has sat empty for about four years, reviving last Halloween as a costume shop, then going dark again.
“When it was functioning as a Borders, it was a bustling Borders,” said Erin Ross, executive director of the 95th Street Beverly Hills Business Association, a trade group for business and property owners on the Chicago thoroughfare. “It’s just kind of a source of disappointment right now.”
Empty stores from retailers that went out of business years ago – such as Borders Group, which had big floor plans that are hard to fill – are dotting shopping centres across the US at a time when the rest of the commercial real estate market has rebounded.
They are now going to be joined by thousands of additional stores that will soon be vacant as retailers such as RadioShack file for bankruptcy and department store operators including JC Penney and Macy’s cut locations to save money.
Vacancies at US regional malls rose to 8 per cent in the fourth quarter from 7.9 per cent a year earlier, partly because of Sears Holdings store closures, according to Reis. The real estate recovery for neighbourhood and community shopping centres has “remained at a snail’s pace”, the New York-based research firm said in January.
“When it was functioning as a Borders, it was a bustling Borders,” said Erin Ross, executive director of the 95th Street Beverly Hills Business Association, a trade group for business and property owners on the Chicago thoroughfare. “It’s just kind of a source of disappointment right now.”
Empty stores from retailers that went out of business years ago – such as Borders Group, which had big floor plans that are hard to fill – are dotting shopping centres across the US at a time when the rest of the commercial real estate market has rebounded.
They are now going to be joined by thousands of additional stores that will soon be vacant as retailers such as RadioShack file for bankruptcy and department store operators including JC Penney and Macy’s cut locations to save money.
Vacancies at US regional malls rose to 8 per cent in the fourth quarter from 7.9 per cent a year earlier, partly because of Sears Holdings store closures, according to Reis. The real estate recovery for neighbourhood and community shopping centres has “remained at a snail’s pace”, the New York-based research firm said in January.