Re:The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town
by fixxer on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @01:29PM
(#9924024)
> different kinds of commercial space.
And different uses for existing space. I'm not a big believer in any economic theory, but I see supply-side drivers abound. Case in point, there are so many vacant ex-Dominick's you can rent/buy for a song.
Re:The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town
by toomuchtodo on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @02:27PM
(#9924564)
While those ex-Dominicks buildings are for lease ("rent/buy for a song"), I have yet to see anyone acquire them at their old Bartlett, Schaumburg, or Algonquin locations.
Re:The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town
by bunderbunder on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @03:28PM
(#9925043)
Head up to Milwaukee and you'll see plenty of old Kohl's supermarkets that have all been sitting vacant ever since the chain shut down over a decade ago.
Re:The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town
by burger_moon on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @07:12PM
(#9926563)
The grocery stores were vacant for a few years but I can't think of any since I left Milwaukee last year that were still dormant. Office Max, Joanne Fabrics, those types of retail took over most of them that weren't leveled.
Re:The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town
by will_work4tears on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @04:44PM
(#9925660)
Oh wow, did all of your Milwaukee's Kohl's shut down? We have them here (Puget Sound area) still, and when we left Missouri in 2008 they were still there doing fine.
Re:The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town
by hnal943 on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @05:31PM
(#9925969)
Kohl's Grocery Stores (defunct) is different than the department store chain, which incidentally is headquartered in the Milwaukee suburbs.
Re:The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town
by toomuchtodo on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @06:02PM
(#9926185)
And the only reason Kohl's the department store chain still has its HQ in Wisconsin is due to extremely generous tax breaks from Scott Walker.
Re:The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town
by bunderbunder on Tuesday July 21, 2015 @06:51PM
(#9926440)
Not entirely; they were both run by the same parent company.
I wonder if perhaps we're seeing the results of a shift to the service economy in addition to the shift back to the cities. If we need fewer people to manually perform clerical work in offices, and more people to run the restaurants that we increasingly eat at, then that's going to create a definite shift in demand for different kinds of commercial space.