Reprinted from Detroit Free Press Detroit’s fight to reduce blight has begun to focus more on vacant, dilapidated business properties marring the city’s landscape, with city lawyers quietly taking dozens of property owners to court in recent months to get them to either fix up or demolish their buildings. A team of six lawyers in […]
Reprinted from www.globest.com CHICAGO—As bid-up pricing results in lower returns, especially in prime office markets, investors are turning to a new strategy, according to Transwestern’s Gary Nussbaum. That is, they’re becoming more opportunistic, buying buildings with substantial or total vacancies. It’s not only the lower returns on stabilized assets that have motivated investors to accept […]
Reprinted from www.citylab.com In case you haven’t heard, suburban malls are on the way out (sorry Paul Blart). Some have become abandoned wastelands popular for ruin porn. Others have been torn down and turned into industrial sites. According to Ellen Dunham-Jones, an architect and professor at Georgia Tech, there are about 1,200 enclosed malls in […]
Reprinted from www.opportunityspace.org beautiful Cranston Street Armory in Providence, RI. Armories in the United States were built in the 19th and 20th centuries by local and state militias to store weapons and to train volunteer soldiers. Armories typically have a large interior space that was used for drills and rooms used for weapons storage […]
Reprinted from www.oportunityspace.org Tactical urbanist humor is the best. (Artist: Joe Sandmann) Sometimes you see a vacant lot or run down space that is just asking for some change. No matter what the size — whether it’s intimidatingly large or frustratingly small — there is a project that can activate the space. It’s hard to […]
Reprinted from Ohio.Com Downtown Akron has its share of vacant storefronts, and a new effort aims to fill some of them with temporary “pop-up” shops. The nonprofit Downtown Akron Partnership is launching its “pop-up retail” program, seeking business owners and entrepreneurs who will be matched with downtown property owners who have empty first-floor storefront space. […]
Reprinted from National Real Estate Investor On Feb. 4, women’s clothing retailer Cache filed for Chapter 11. Through the bankruptcy, the chain plans to renegotiate leases and close a portion of its 218 stores. Cache’s announcement is the latest in a lengthy list of store closings announcements so far this year. Just a few days […]
Reprint from NY Times OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Inside the gleaming mall here on the Sunday before Christmas, just one thing was missing: shoppers. The upbeat music of “Jingle Bell Rock” bounced off the tiles, and the smell of teriyaki chicken drifted from the food court, but only a handful of stores were open at […]
Reprinted from ctpost.com BRIDGEPORT — Anyone familiar with the abandoned manufacturing plants and vacant lots scarring Connecticut’s largest city has shared the same thought: Just get rid of the blight and build something already! City officials are considering taxing at least some of those underused properties at a higher rate to compel owners to stop “land-hoarding” […]
As 2014 comes to a close, organizations are often left with some tough budget decisions. ‘Use it or lose it’ decisions are common in corporate budgeting. Since you do not want to ‘lose’ your budget and risk facing 2015 with less capital resources, what can you do to maximize your money spent while making a […]