Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many malls around the country were in trouble. The obvious solution for real estate investors and developers has been to turn these decaying centers into other property types.
The case for these conversions is straightforward: In the US, there is an oversupply of retail buildings, and many defunct malls have already been converted to industrial uses.
Since 2017, a total of 13.8 million square feet of retail space has been converted to 15.5 million square feet of industrial space across the country, according to CBRE, which expects the trend to continue.
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Leslie Shaver
Les Shaver has been covering commercial and residential real estate for almost 20 years. His work has appeared in Multifamily Executive, Builder, units, Arlington Magazine in addition to GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum.
