Mall Anchor Industrial Conversions Are Generating Interest But Likely To Remain A Niche Trend
August 28, 2020 | Christie Moffat | Bisnow Houston
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt traditional retail models and e-commerce demand continues to soar, investors and developers are becoming increasingly interested in the future of struggling or dead shopping malls.
The national conversation has turned to whether those malls can be converted into effective last-mile distribution facilities. The proximity of those malls to rooftops is alluring, but not all are suitable for adaptive reuse.
“Probably one in 10 or one in 20 of these malls are ready for an [e-commerce] deal,” Powers Brown Architecture principal Nazir Khalfe said during a Bisnow webinar Aug. 26. “A lot of the others will be land plays, or they will be left derelict.”
