Photo taken before Maine Gov. Janet Mills delivers her State of the State address to a joint legislative session in the House of Representatives chamber in Augusta. Jan. 27, 2026. Photo: Jim Neuger
housing.
“Converting vacant schools into housing is a common sense approach to creating affordable and attainable housing in many communities,” Rep. Traci Gere (D-Kennebunkport) told members of the Maine Legislature’s Housing and Economic Development Committee on Tuesday.
The bill, LD 2164, would provide financial and technical assistance to communities to help them convert unused school buildings into housing, including units dedicated to affordable housing.
“As many Maine communities are in the process of making important decisions on next steps for these publicly owned assets, this bill is timely and important,” Gere said.
Maine needs more than 80,000 new housing units by 2030, according to a 2023 statewide housing study. At the same time, old school buildings are centrally located, have the infrastructure in place and are typically beloved by the community, which make them well-primed to be converted into housing, several people testifying in favor of the proposal told the committee during the public hearing.
The Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority already provides technical assistance to municipalities seeking to repurpose old buildings, and is currently helping three Maine towns — Brooks, Liberty and Union — with their redevelopment. But often, vacant school redevelopment projects “don’t prove financially feasible, so they hit a wall, leaving communities with few options for moving forward, especially for small municipalities with limited resources,” Gere told the committee.
That’s why the bill creates an ongoing annual appropriation of $5 million to convert old schools into housing units, with the help of the land bank authority.
Several groups, including MaineHousing, the state’s independent housing authority, the Maine Mayors Coalition, and other economic and real estate development organizations supported the proposal. The Maine Real Estate and Development Association said it has a “ unique opportunity to touch all parts of the state,” since there are almost two dozen vacant school buildings available statewide, according to the Maine Land Bank Authority.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel here, there have been plenty of schools, both in Maine and across the nation, that have been converted into housing,” said Elizabeth Frazier, testifying on behalf of the association. “I think there is an opportunity here for both sides of the aisle to find something that they like in this bill and to come together to really create some housing.”
The land bank authority also supported the proposal, saying that due to demographic trends (such as declining school enrollment) there are even more old school buildings expected to be available for redevelopment in the future.
The organization will continue providing technical support to municipalities even if the bill does not pass, “but with the additional support from this fund, that increases the amount of impact we’re able to have and pushes some of those more long-standing vacancies … back to functional use,” said the group’s programs manager, Gabe Gauvin.
While no one at the public hearing testified against the bill, the Maine Municipal Association opposed it in written testimony. The nonprofit membership organization said Maine cities and towns are struggling with many types of functionally obsolete properties and object to limiting the proposed $5 million allocation to one type of redevelopment, “rather than making it available where the need is greatest,” said advocacy manager Tanya Emery.
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2026-03-04 09:59:252026-03-04 09:59:25Lawmakers look to old school buildings as potential for new housing
Reprinted from Fresnoland https://fresnoland.org/2026/01/23/inside-the-effort-to-fix-the-tower-districts-vacant-building-problems/
The Fresno City Council approved two new pilot programs in 2025 that try out strategies for eliminating commercial vacancies in the Tower District neighborhood. by Julianna Morano
A new pilot program for Fresno’s Tower District aims to tackle vacant commercial properties that stay empty longer than a month, including storefronts like the Chicken Pie Shop. Julianna Morano | Fresnoland
What’s at stake?
The Tower District isn’t alone in dealing with long-term vacancies among its commercial buildings. But there are some factors that make its struggle with vacancy unique, including the many properties owned by multiple family members.
In a neighborhood like Fresno’s Tower District, where some storefronts have stood vacant since the Nixon administration, local lawmakers are seeking out new ways to tackle the blight.
But are their tactics working?
Some say it’s too soon to tell.
If that was the proverbial stick, six months later, Perea returned with the carrot: In December, she passed a new one-year incentive program for the Tower District that promised small local businesses rebates of up to 50% of what they pay the city in sales tax for two years if they become tenants of a vacant property.
“We’re doing more to hold negligent property owners accountable,” Perea said of the new programs in a recent interview with Fresnoland. “On the other hand, I want to do whatever I can to help them get their buildings occupied again.”
In the first six months of the older of the two laws, many of these empty properties have stayed empty. But some see other signs of progress in its wake.
“I think it has helped the communication with some of the building owners,” said Cami Cipolla, interim executive director of the Tower District Business Association.
That’s a notable step forward, she added, in tackling the issue of absentee property owners in Tower who don’t live in the area and are difficult to pin down.
Still, no one is claiming victory yet, and that includes Perea.
She said that more time is needed to see what works and what doesn’t with the new vacant building pilot. As for the incentive program that passed last month, Perea’s office has yet to receive any applications — and is working on getting the word out to more businesses.
“We’re going to be, this week, filming a couple promo videos at different spots in the Tower District, so we can better get the word out,” she said. “Simply passing an agenda item doesn’t necessarily tell folks what’s going on.”
Others think the city may not have found the right combination of strategies for eliminating vacancies yet.
Arias, who co-sponsored the vacant building pilot program with Perea, said a goal for the remaining year of his term at City Hall is to introduce a vacancy tax for some property owners. That would add onto the existing property tax bill of building owners whose properties stay vacant for a certain period.
“The fact is, a vacant property costs the public a lot more resources than (an) occupied property, both in police and fire time and code enforcement,” Arias said. “If somebody is going to intentionally keep their property vacant, the rest of the public should not have to pay or subsidize the amount of public resources required to maintain that property.”
But not everyone feels confident the stick — or even two sticks — will move the needle on commercial vacancies.
That includes Scott Miller, head of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce.
Miller co-owns multiple Tower businesses, and is also the owner of a vacant commercial property in the program’s pilot zone off of Olive and Vagedes. He said he’s been “treated very fairly” under the new program, but is still concerned it “presupposes” owners can rent or sell their properties more quickly “if they try harder,” when that’s not always the case.
“It’s been vacant for a little while,” he said of his property, which started as a nursery and was most recently home to an ice cream shop before it became vacant last March. “But that’s how it works. I want to get somebody in there, but it’s not outrageous with a property like this that’s so unique and different.”
Veronica Stumpf, a commercial real estate broker with clients in the Tower, said she hasn’t seen the new pilot programs inspire a change in behavior from the property owners she works with “just yet.”
“What I’m seeing is owners often become more willing to sell only after a fire or major incident happens,” she said, “which is exactly what this ordinance is trying to prevent.”
What do the new vacant building programs in Tower require?
The vacant commercial building pilot comes with new requirements for owners in Tower. For one, the owner of any boarded-up building must make their property ready for occupancy within four months of when it’s first boarded up.
There are some exceptions for owners to blow past those 120 days: For example, if the building has an active permit and the owner is “progressing diligently” toward permitted construction.
There’s also an exception for properties the City Attorney’s Office declares aren’t a “nuisance” — a requirement Perea said was intended to give the code enforcement team flexibility.
“I have not seen our City Attorney’s Office abuse that definition,” she said. “If it gets to a point where somebody from the community feels like we are not adequately using that definition the way they see fit, you know, I’m happy to look at that.”
Vacant property owners must also, under the pilot program, add information about their space to a registry if it’s vacant longer than 30 days. That information includes contact information for the owners, any agent or representative they may have and anyone with “legal interest in the property,” as well as the date on which the property became vacant. This information builds on existing requirements already under the city’s Blighted Vacant Building Ordinance that’s been on the books since 2003, according to Fresno Municipal Code.
Since the pilot took effect last summer, Perea told Fresnoland that 55 notices have been issued to vacant property owners.
Of those, 23 of those cases were subsequently closed because code enforcement determined the property wasn’t actually vacant.
Another 20 of those cases have since closed because the property owners came into compliance.
“Whether it was broken windows that they went and fixed,” Perea said, “whatever the issue was, they addressed them.”
Nine of the 55 cases remain open. Perea said a majority of those cases remain active since property owners have yet to remedy violations, while a handful are because the city hasn’t been able to get in touch with the owners.
Some properties along Fern Avenue in Fresno’s Tower District have sat vacant for decades. Julianna Morano | Fresnoland
As for the tax incentive program, Perea said the eligibility criteria were written with mom-and-pop shops in mind. For instance, applicants are required to have a minimum of three employees, and chains aren’t eligible.
That’s mainly due to the results of a previous incarnation of this small business incentive program, Perea said, which aimed to revitalize businesses along what was then called Kings Canyon Boulevard (now Cesar Chavez Boulevard). The only business that ended up taking advantage then was a Taco Bell.
The Tower District Business Association was pleased to see the provision barring chain stores written into the pilot legislation.
“That was definitely a concern that our membership had. Is this going to benefit these businesses or these companies that can afford $200,000 renovations and whatnot,” said Cipolla, the organization’s interim executive director, “but then we lose our uniqueness in Tower?
“I just can’t picture a Chili’s going into Chicken Pie Shop,” she added, the latter being a multiyear vacancy in the heart of the Tower on Olive and Wishon. “Especially when you’ve got a place like Irene’s that’s just right there on the corner. We have people that have been going to that restaurant for 30 years.”
How severe are commercial vacancies in Tower?
Though the Tower District is ground zero for some of the city’s new approaches for targeting empty storefronts, it has a slightly lower commercial vacancy rate than the city as a whole.
Tower’s rate sat at roughly 5.3% as of mid-January, while the City of Fresno’s was higher at 7.5%. That’s according to data from CoStar, a commercial real estate analytics platform, provided to Fresnoland by the Fresno Economic Development Corporation.
Tower came in at a lower commercial vacancy rate than downtown Fresno, where the rate was about 6.8%, as well as southeast Fresno, where the rate was 12.4% by CoStar’s estimates. Woodward Park, on the other hand, has a slightly lower vacancy rate than Tower at 4.8%.
At the same time, CoStar figures show Tower has the lowest “absorption rate” of all these regions of the city at -2.4%. That rate measures how quickly commercial real estate is taken off the market, compared to how much gets added.
In that sense, positive absorption means “there’s more space being leased than what is being added to the market,” Stumpf said — a sign of a recovering or expanding market.
A negative rate like Tower’s, on the other hand, means “new space is being delivered faster than what could be leased” — the signs of “hyper-supply” in the market, she added.
While commercial vacancies plague multiple neighborhoods, Tower’s issue with vacancies has some unique factors. For instance, many of its property owners are families with “multiple decision-makers” in charge, Stumpf said, some of whom may live outside of California.
“A lot of the property owners are asset-rich, but they’re cash-strapped,” she added, “meaning they’re families that have inherited these properties, and they have a fair amount of real estate, but they don’t have the resources to rehabilitate their property, or they can’t quite get their family members on the same page to lease their properties, or they’re in a position where they can offer their property for half market rent, but they don’t have the capital upfront to make tenant improvements.”
Those costs then fall to the businesses looking to rent the space, not many of whom are willing to spend between $250,000 and $500,000 on improvements to a building they’ll ultimately lease rather than own, Stumpf said.
Cipolla is facing this dilemma with her own plans for a Tower business. Her dream is to open an arcade of sorts, where families living in the neighborhood could have fun “playing old-school PacMan.” She also envisions boardgame rooms, plus drinks and small bites for patrons after dark.
She has her sights set on the vacant Chicken Pie Shop for this endeavor. But imagining the renovation costs for that property is daunting.
“I’ve tried to get in touch with (the owners) multiple times, and it’s gone nowhere. But my understanding is it’s completely gutted on the inside,” she said, “which means you’ve got to start from the bottom up.”
Different philosophies on how to tackle vacancies
Finding the right strategy to combat vacancies often comes down to the strength of a given market, said Alan Mallach, a senior fellow with the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit focused on tackling vacant properties.
“The real question is,” he said, “is there demand there for all of this space?”
“If you’re looking at a really distressed neighborhood, and there are people who are walking away from houses because they don’t have much value, sticks in that kind of context are really a pretty bad idea,” he added. “In an area with a strong market, where there are people who want to get into storefronts and run stores and restaurants and things like that, it could be helpful.”
Arias, who represents the Tower District south of Olive as well as downtown and Chinatown, believes “the stick has been necessary” to force negligent landlords to maintain basic health and safety standards for their buildings in his district. By bringing forward a vacancy tax in the next year, he hopes to work toward subsidizing the financial burden of problematic vacant properties that otherwise falls largely on taxpayers.
“Some of the properties in my district, I’ve learned, are intentionally vacant,” he said. “There’s very little incentive that the city could generate to convince them to develop.”
But incentive programs like the new one in Tower can also have a place in a city’s broader strategy, Mallach said — although businesses aren’t necessarily the only one to try targeting.
“Having carrots for landlords — not just tenants — I think can be useful,” he said.
Mallach said he’s seen other cities offer low-interest loan programs to rehabilitate their properties.
Stumpf pointed to other initiatives from the city that could help her clients in Tower, such as expediting the permit process, streamlining approvals for basic tenant improvement plans and having dedicated case managers for rehabilitative projects in the pilot zone.
“Owners need tools,” she said, “not just deadlines.”
For Miller’s vacant building, he said he was planning “to do the right thing anyway” and find a new tenant for the property, with or without the new pilot program. He thinks he’s far from the only owner with that mindset.
“Nobody that I’m aware of buys a building and invests in a building,” he said, “to leave it vacant.”
He said he’s eager to see the broader results of the vacant commercial building pilot over the course of the 12-month pilot.
“If we can point to a building that’s been vacant for multiple years that is now not, and it’s as a result of this program, then it’s successful,” he said. “If not, it’s just another layer of stuff that business owners need to navigate.”
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2026-03-04 09:58:542026-03-04 09:58:54Inside the effort to fix the Tower District’s vacant building problems
Real Estate industry entrepreneur, Marc Insul of Cleveland, Ohio, co-founder, president and COO of Commercial Asset Preservation, established in 2009, sells the company to Shore Capital Partners of Chicago.
Mr. Insul remains in the position of president and COO.
Shore Capital Partners Announces the Launch of Maintera Facility Services and Welcomes Commercial Asset Preservation (CAP) to the Platform
Maintera Facility Services launches as a national platform for comprehensive facility management solutions across operating and vacant properties.
CHICAGO (January 21, 2026) – Shore Capital Partners (“Shore” or “Shore Capital”) is pleased to announce the formation of Maintera Facility Services (“Maintera”), a leading platform providing outsourced commercial facility management and vacant property services. Additionally, Maintera has acquired Commercial Asset Preservation, LLC (“CAP”), a provider of property maintenance and inspection services – with a deep expertise in vacant property portfolios – to multi-site clients in the food & beverage, retail, industrial, institutional, office, hospitality, and convenience store end markets.
The launch of Maintera follows Shore’s December 2024 investment in TCG Services, LLC (“TCG”), a provider of on-demand break-fix facility management solutions for multi-site customers in the consumer, financial, healthcare, transportation, technology, and other end markets. Maintera combines the strengths of TCG’s maintenance and repair capabilities with CAP’s property maintenance and inspection expertise to deliver a seamless experience for customers managing both operating and vacant locations. Through the Maintera platform, customers benefit from a single point of accountability, shared best practices, and access to expanded technical resources while maintaining TCG and CAP’s operational expertise and leading responsiveness.
Under the Maintera platform, customers can rely on a single partner for both operating and vacant sites, enabling faster response times, greater consistency, and a higher standard of service across every interaction. Maintera will continue to invest in technology, process innovation, and scale to better serve its customers’ complex, multi-location portfolios.
“Bringing TCG and CAP together under the Maintera brand is a powerful step forward for our customers and our teams,” said David Jaffee, CEO of Maintera. “We’re combining two highly respected operators with complementary strengths to better support customers across the full lifecycle of their properties. With Shore’s support, we’re building a platform that delivers broader coverage, deeper expertise, and a more consistent customer experience at scale.”
“The launch of Maintera reflects Shore’s continued conviction in the outsourced facility management sector and our belief that our customers benefit from platforms built around execution,” said Matt Matosian, Principal at Shore Capital. “TCG and CAP are outstanding businesses with synergistic service offerings and strong cultures. We’re excited to support their continued growth as Maintera builds a leading national platform.”
Both TCG and CAP will continue to operate under their existing names as part of the Maintera platform. To learn more about Maintera, TCG, and CAP, please visit www.maintera.com.
About Maintera Facility Services
Maintera Facility Services is a leading national provider of comprehensive facility management services to multi-site customers, coordinating on-demand facility repairs, preventative maintenance & inspection, capital expenditure projects, and vacant property services across a variety of service lines. Maintera is headquartered in Chicago, IL, and is comprised of TCG Services, LLC, based in El Dorado, KS, and Commercial Asset Preservation, LLC, based in Salt Lake City, UT. To learn more about Maintera, please visit www.maintera.com.
About Commercial Asset Preservation
Commercial Asset Preservation provides property maintenance and inspection solutions to both operating and vacant site portfolios for multi-site customers. CAP is based in Salt Lake City, UT. To learn more about CAP, please visit www.commercialpreservation.com.
About TCG Services
TCG Services is a provider of on-demand break-fix facility management solutions for multi-site customers in the consumer, financial, healthcare, transportation, and technology end markets. TCG is based in El Dorado, KS. To learn more about TCG, please visit: www.tcgfm.com.
About Shore Capital Partners
Shore Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm with an office in Nashville, is an investor in lower-middle market companies in the Healthcare, Food and Beverage, Business Services, Industrial, and Real Estate industries. Shore’s strategy is to support management partners to grow faster with less risk through access to capital, world-class board and operational resources, and unmatched networking, development, and shared learnings across the portfolio. From 2020-2025, Shore received recognition from Inc. Magazine as a 6x Top Founder Friendly Investor and by Pitchbook Research for leading U.S. Private Equity deal volume for the past 10 years, from 2015-2024. Shore targets investments in proven, successful private companies with superior management teams, stable cash flow, and significant potential to grow through industry consolidation and organic growth to generate value for shareholders. Shore has approximately $14 billion of assets under management and in additional investment platforms to which it provides business and operational consulting services. To learn more about Shore Capital Partners, please visit www.shorecp.com.
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2026-03-02 12:29:432026-03-02 12:29:43Shore Capital Partners Announces the Launch of Maintera Facility Services and Welcomes Commercial Asset Preservation (CAP) to the Platform
Homelessness and vandalism are distinct issues. Retailers should differentiate between lawful, non-threatening presence and conduct that warrants security or law enforcement involvement, such as vandalism, theft, or safety threats.
Proactive planning reduces risk. Clear staff protocols, defined security contacts, and pre-established relationships with local non-emergency and community resources are essential to effective response.
Leases, training, and design matter. Well-drafted lease provisions, coordinated security roles, staff de-escalation training, and thoughtful property design help manage issues lawfully, safely, and compassionately.
When facing concerns related to individuals experiencing homelessness or (separate but, with occasional overlap) vandalism, retail location operators often find themselves on the front lines of store safety, customer experience, and compassionate community care. These issues affect many of our operating and non-operating locations nationwide, yet retailers and owners may feel like they’re winging it when it comes to protocols for handling these situations. While we found no easy answers, our panel at NRTA 2025 on “Vandalism and the Unhoused: Best Practices” for commercial tenants, landlords, and owners sought to share real solutions.
The Conversation
Sherri Hester of Dollar General, offering wisdom from years of on-site location management.
Marc Insul of Commercial Asset Preservation, covering physical security and deterrent options, particularly for after-hours or decommissioned real estate.
Teresa Jones of Central Florida Code Enforcement, speaking to the importance of building local law and code enforcement connections for in-store staff, tenants, and landlords.
Caroline Magee of AGG Retail Real Estate practice, on lease language and landlord/tenant shared responsibilities.
Brian Postlewait, local leader of both the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida and Florida’s statewide coalition to end homelessness, on creating partnerships with community nonprofits — we are all in this together.
Highlights
Vandalism and homelessness are not the same issue, and people experiencing homelessness are not a threat in all cases. Everyone from store staff to building owners seems to know this, and are seeking nuanced guidance on how to handle different situations as they arise.
Sometimes 911 is the right call. What is worth a police call: theft, vandalism, harassment or threatening behavior, trespassing after a warning, or genuine safety threats (to others or to the individual themselves).
But what about non-emergency matters that are affecting customer or staff experience? Being homeless, by itself, isn’t illegal. So, who to call?
Make sure retail staff has contact information for the on-site security provider (if any). Landlords, ask the security provider to provide you with specific steps for how that provider handles unhoused persons in a range of behavior situations, from sleeping to aggressive behaviors.
Community hotlines and resources. Run a web or AI-assisted search for specific 911 alternatives in your property’s location. Build relationships early, so you can reach these organizations easily when you need them. Look for:
Hotlines/rapid response numbers
Encampment reporting
Partnerships with services agencies and/or law enforcement
Local economic development organizations that have a vested interest in addressing situations of homelessness and vagrancy matters
Examples include Atlanta’s Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative; Jacksonville, Florida’s PATH team; the Houston, Texas Homeless Outreach Team (HOT); and Phoenix, Arizona’s PDX C.A.R.E.S. hotline.
Know your local community organization neighbors. Postlewait’s advice was simple but powerful: get to know the homeless service providers, business development folks, and advocacy organizations in your markets before you have a problem, not after.
Design matters. Better lighting. Strategic planters. Benches with armrests. Insul reminded everyone that thoughtful environmental design prevents issues without making your property look like a fortress.
Lease language? Leases may indicate that landlords have a right to manage access to the property and remove persons who, in landlord’s judgment, are (for example) overly intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. In jurisdictions where only the property owner, not the tenant or operator, can legally request removal of a person from the property, consider including lease language stating that the landlord will reasonably cooperate with tenant in requesting removal, and make sure the landlord has provided a contact person for such a situation. For vandalism, the lease may allocate security responsibilities and costs of security-incident-related damage. Tenants should be aware of what security landlord is or is not providing, and design its own security to fill the gaps.
Listen to your security teams. As asset managers will tell you, private security regularly deals with nonviolent but aggressive behaviors, such as spitting and verbal attacks. Communicate with your security teams about how they de-escalate these occurrences. Understanding their protocols helps landlords, tenants, and operators anticipate the process for various situations. If you have a relationship with a community organization as described here, consider linking the security team with that organization for designing approaches.
Train your people. People tend to be compassionate, and situations with unhoused or otherwise struggling persons are challenging for staff who are not social workers and are trying to run a business. Give frontline staff actual scripts, such as:
“I’m sorry, this is private property and we need to ask you to leave.” Your location may have a policy that operators can provide a cup of water or another preplanned response.
“It’s our store policy. I understand this is difficult, but I do need to ask you to go.”
If disruptive behavior: “I need to ask you to leave the store now. If you continue [sleeping/blocking the entrance/bothering customers], I’ll need to call for assistance.”
Or refusal to leave: “I’ve asked you to leave and you’re now trespassing. I’m going to call [security/the police/management] now.”
And yes, establish code words to use with the asset manager or security when things go sideways.
If you have a relationship with local code enforcement, a 911-alternative provider, or community organization that provides rapid response, include those numbers in your staff protocol.
Everyone is doing the best they can, and real estate develops communities in all kinds of ways. Empathy abounded in the room during this discussion. None of this is easy and, for real estate owners and operators, difficult lines will need to be drawn. But if we zoom out, real estate and retail are naturally influential partners with community development and advocacy organizations to guide both growth and approaches to community concerns.
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2026-01-05 07:54:592026-01-05 07:54:59Critical Conversations: NRTA 2025 Addresses Responsible Approaches to Homelessness and Property Safety in Commercial Real Estate
Reprinted from B105 https://b105country.com/malls-apartments-minnesota/
There’s a trend starting to catch on that may save the once-great concept of malls in Minnesota. Malls used to be vibrant shopping centers when brick-and-mortar stores were the way people got their goods. Retail sales have dropped significantly since 2001, with online shopping to blame.
How Shopping Malls Are Being Transformed Into Apartments In The U.S.
In our busy lives, it’s so much easier to buy things with “one click” through Amazon while sitting on the couch at home. But what about when you need something right now, and you can’t wait for shipping? There’s a case for keeping retail stores locally.
Unfortunately, so many malls have seen retail businesses close. Many malls across the US have vacant storefronts. Vandalism can become a problem, and these huge complexes take up valuable real estate and sit empty.
Creating Apartments In Malls
There’s a new trend that’s catching on that makes perfect sense here in Minnesota. Developers are turning vacant stores and spaces in malls into apartments. Whether they completely gut it or redevelop the space, it’s creating a solution to housing issues.
It’s a win-win. There’s plenty of parking available at malls already. Malls are in prime accessible real estate locations near main roadways, and often in the center of the community.
Dead Malls Season 5 Episode 23 – Burnsville Center
Foot traffic from residents in the mall can bring retail stores back. Coffee, food shops, and convenience stores all would make perfect sense. The mall would still be open to the public and residents.
There are plans underway for some malls to redevelop, like Burnsville Center which has turned into a ghost town. The city is hoping to turn the mall into the Burnsville Center Village with mixed housing, hotels, eateries, and more.
Minnesota Malls Could Be Communities
Minnesota is notorious for its long, harsh winters. Wouldn’t it be something if you could get everything you need without going out into the cold? Redevelopment of malls could be a great idea for communities to revitalize struggling retail spaces, making it safer for the community and helping solve housing issues.
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2025-05-21 09:00:402025-05-21 09:00:40Minnesota Malls Could Find New Life As Residential Spaces
Elev8 Fun is turning vacant department stores into indoor adventure parks that offer everything from laser tag and arcade games to go-karts and bowling. The company has two locations open in Tampa and Orlando, Florida, and four more in the pipeline that it expects to open within 12 months. The ownership team sees even more growth potential in Florida and is eyeing the Northeast as a likely first step in its national expansion. Commerce + Communities Today contributing editor Beth Mattson-Teig spoke with principal and managing partner David Goldfarb about Elev8 Fun’s real estate footprint and growth plans.
David Goldfarb is the principal and managing partner of both Elev8 Fun and Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Photo courtesy of Elev8 Fun
You’ve described your concept as a 2.0 version of Dave & Buster’s. Tell us a bit about the atmosphere you’re creating at Elev8 Fun.
Elev8 mimics one of our first locations, Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale. Xtreme Action is a 200,000-square-foot family entertainment center, which won an [American Amusement Machine Association] award in 2018 as the best family entertainment center in the country. [For that concept], we bought a 350,000-square-foot warehouse and converted the warehouse into [commercial] condos and used 200,000 square feet for entertainment. Xtreme Action Park was unusual because it was a warehouse that happened to be located on I-95, which is the main traffic corridor, and it had ample parking. It was so successful that we wanted to see how we could expand, but the location is really a unicorn. Our first thought was that all these department stores are going out of business within malls. Why don’t we see if we can buy [them]? We bought our first department store, a Sears, in 2019 in Sanford [north of Orlando], and then we bought another Sears in Tampa.
When did your first two Elev8 Fun adventure parks open?
We were going through construction when COVID hit, and we had a massive delay in opening. The first Elev8 opened Jan. 1, 2022, at the Seminole Towne Center mall in [Sanford], which is currently being redeveloped. They are demoing the property and putting in 700 apartments, a hotel and a Costco, as well as a lot of individual stores. It’s going to be extremely helpful to us. From there, we opened Elev8 in Tampa, and it’s doing excellent. It was a former Westfield property that was converted.
We’re taking 125,000 square feet and becoming what we call this 800-pound gorilla where we have everything for everyone from 4 years old up to 80 years old. We have indoor go-karts, approximately 180 arcade machines, laser tag, mini golf, bowling, a ropes course, an event space and our own food hall, which includes California Pizza Kitchen and MrBeast Burger, along with other big names.
Elev8 Fun locations include indoor go-karts, approximately 180 arcade machines, laser tag, mini golf, bowling, ropes courses, event spaces and food halls. Photo courtesy of Elev8 Fun
Is Elev8 a spinoff from Xtreme Action Park, or is it evolving in different ways?
Xtreme was so successful, but it was hard to duplicate because it’s hard to buy that square footage with ample parking. The idea of these department stores came into play, and it has been extremely fruitful. Our first location in Sanford came with eight acres of parking, and we are now building a Marriott hotel on the property, which we’re doing as a joint venture. We’re expanding outside of our core business of family entertainment centers, and we’ve really become a real estate company. Originally, we bought these facilities for our own purpose, but we’ve figured out how to utilize the additional real estate for other purposes.
With an average footprint of roughly 125,000 square feet, Elev8 Fun aims to be a one-stop shop for family entertainment. Photo courtesy of Elev8 Fun
You have two locations open. What else do you have in the pipeline?
We went to [an] ICSC conference and met with Simon Property Group, and they really liked what we’re doing. Our next three locations are all in Simon malls. We bought directly from Simon at Jensen Beach, which is north of Palm Beach. That store will open in April, and it will be our third location. Our fourth store is in Miami, in a former Kohl’s. These are all approximately the same size, about 125,000 square feet. In August, we’re buying our fifth store in Jacksonville, and then we have a sixth location that will also be in [North] Miami. At every location, we own the real estate and do our own internal construction.
We’re looking to open as many as 10 more locations in Florida, and then we’re looking to head to the Northeast and start in New York and New Jersey.
How are you financing your growth?
So far, we have no debt. We have been purchasing these with all cash, including all the construction and all the attractions. Back in 2023, my first company was called PrimeTime Amusements, which was an arcade company. I sold that to a private equity group called H.I.G. Capital. By coincidence, two of my closest friends wanted to buy minority shares in Elev8, and they came in with me, so, the company is a combination of three friends, but I’m the principal and I own the majority of shares.
What do you look for in a potential location, especially as you expand in the Northeast?
We’re looking for areas with at least 300,000 people within a 20-mile radius. We’re looking to branch off with groups like Simon Property Group and Brookfield, among others, because they know how to run these malls. There are mall operators that are struggling, and large parts of malls are being redeveloped. We have no problem being an independent at the location as long as the mall is being redeveloped. As long as we’re in an area where the energy is good, we have no problem.
“We have no problem being an independent at the location as long as the mall is being redeveloped. As long as we’re in an area where the energy is good, we have no problem.”
How do you see Elev8 fitting into the broader category of experiential entertainment?
We try to cater to all audiences. Now we’re implementing Elev8 Kids, which is an area for kids between ages 4 and 10. Then we have our food hall, which also includes a sports bar where we’ll have six to eight different food categories within our facility with all brand names and with full liquor. We’ll have about 65 TVs within the venue.
What kind of runway do you think the sector has?
There are not many options when you have a mall that consists of 1 million-plus square feet and these department stores within them. I would say that 95% of America can’t handle that much retail. They’re going to need subcategories, and entertainment is a major subcategory that brings in a lot of people. This is why we’re very welcome with operators like Simon Property Group.
Elev8 Fun bowling Photo courtesy of Elev8 Fun
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2025-04-18 11:17:192025-04-18 11:17:19Elev8 Fun Is Buying Vacant Department Stores and Turning Them Into Indoor Adventure Parks
Abandoned storefronts are prevalent across the city and often remain vacant for years after a restaurant closes.
Restaurants close for a variety of reasons, but what keeps the buildings vacant long after the tenant moves out?Credit: Shira Friedman-Parks
For more than a hundred years, Dinkel’s Bakery was the hookup for baked goods in Lakeview and Roscoe Village; its iconic sign served as a beacon for everyday carb-seekers and musicians loitering at the Chicago Music Exchange across the street.
Dinkel’s closed its doors in 2022. Look through the storefront windows today and you’ll see a mess of old equipment, garbage, and other wayward debris. Less than a block away, what was once McGuigan’s Irish Pub still has dusty beer bottles visible through its windows.
Whether it’s Pick Me Up Cafe’s old Lakeview location, Leona’s in Rogers Park, or Marcello’s Father & Son in Logan Square, it seems like one is never more than a Malört bottle’s throw from a shuttered restaurant, cafe, or bar. Restaurants close for a variety of reasons, but what keeps the buildings vacant long after the tenant moves out?
Allan Perales, chief operating officer of commercial real estate firm Goldstreet Partners, says food service spaces can remain vacant for years for reasons ranging from immovably high rent to stalled redevelopment plans to pending legal disputes. It’s also not uncommon for prospective tenants to avoid certain buildings due to stigma, or for spaces to remain empty for years simply due to poor marketing on the landlord’s part.
“Challenges with landlords, such as reputational issues or difficulty during negotiations, can also prolong vacancies,” says Perales. “A landlord–tenant relationship is similar to a partnership. It works well when things are going smoothly, but difficulties arise when challenges like late payments occur.”
Just one of these issues can keep a tenantless storefront vacant for years at a time—a neighborhood haunt turned into a neighborhood specter.
The former Dinkel’s Bakery at 3329 N. Lincoln
Credit: Shira Friedman-Parks
The Loop saw its all-time highest retail vacancy rate in 2023, at over 30 percent; it was the culmination of a four-year trend beginning in 2019 and largely attributed to the pandemic. The city does not track data on the specific number of restaurant and building vacancies, and violations reported by citizens only tell so much of the story.
A space will sometimes be leased but still sit inactive for years. In July 2023, developer PCR Group submitted plans for the Dinkel’s space to be redeveloped into a 66,000-square-foot mixed-use building.
Credit: Shira Friedman-Parks
Nicole Alexander, founder and principal designer of Siren Betty Design, says empty restaurant and food-service spaces can be especially prone to poor aging.
“Moisture is the most immediate threat when a space is vacant,” says Alexander. “Damage can show up after a couple months or even weeks of being empty. Also rodents. I’ve never known a restaurant to do a deep clean before they close permanently.”
Food waste is another major issue, especially in cases where a business is forced to close abruptly. When all Foxtrot stores simultaneously closed last April, Eater Chicago reported many stores still contained unsold inventory as late as October of that same year.
“After five years, the bar could be rotted, the drywall moldy, the doors and shelving warped, toilets and sinks stained, HVAC and pipes rusty, leather upholstery dried and cracked. After ten years, you probably need a whole new everything,” says Alexander.
She says extensive renovations can cost roughly $250–$450 per square foot.
“Surface damage is easy to see and also relatively easy to fix. It’s what’s hiding underneath that can really make or break a budget.”
“We’ve also worked on projects where our client is so excited about the space and the location,” she says. “But then we get in there and realize that there’s massive damage from a burst pipe, or the sewer lines are a disaster, or some other huge, expensive fix.”
It’s all a very roundabout way of saying: yes, space left to rot for a decade will suck to renovate.
A neighborhood haunt turned into a brick-and-mortar specter haunting its neighborhood
Restaurateur Mike Chen, who also manages Kyuramen in River North, worked with Perales to purchase a space in River North that had sat vacant for more than a decade.
“I don’t know why [the building] was vacant for that long,” says Chen. “Maybe there were other interested parties, and they couldn’t come to the right terms. It’s a good space with a corner spot, very high visibility on LaSalle and Hubbard. . . . I knew there had been several changes of ownership.”
Chen says that the two-level space, formerly a restaurant called Vinyl, was well maintained by the landlord at the time it was purchased.
“Sadly, that’s not typically the case,” says Alexander. “In Chicago, landlords tend to own multiple properties, so they’re not always diligent about maintaining them in between tenants.”
As Chen prepares for renovation, he says his biggest expense will be the removal of a large iron hood left behind by the previous tenant.
“Yes, it’s very common for equipment to be left behind,” Alexander says. “Typically cooktops, hoods, and some bar equipment can be serviced and salvaged. But many times the equipment that has been left isn’t what the new tenant is looking for.”
Even if a space is maintained well enough to ward off decay, shifting building codes can still require prohibitively expensive renovations. “For example,” says Perales, “restaurants built in the 1990s might need to replace exhaust systems to meet current codes, and these costs can skyrocket, particularly in high-rise buildings.”
General contracting company Vero Design + Build cofounder Josh Veselsky notes that regardless of what shape it might be in, working with a space meant for food service is always preferable to converting a building into something food-service friendly.
The former McGuigan’s Irish Pub at 3358 N. Ashland
Credit: Shira Friedman-Parks
“Oftentimes a vacant restaurant will have outdated construction that needs to be brought up to current code compliance or supplement with new technology, but a vacant restaurant usually ticks a lot more boxes than, say, a vacant currency exchange,” says Veselsky. “We’ve renovated banks, office spaces, retail stores, lofts, and even boats and churches into restaurant spaces, and the efforts and costs are always greater to bring restaurant-specific systems into a building that a restaurant did not previously inhabit.”
The Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) was created in 2013 to actively purchase vacant properties. Though abandoned restaurant spaces aren’t the organization’s primary focus, 2024 saw soul food and Jamaican restaurant Jerk Soule, originally a food truck, open inside an abandoned building in Ashburn, purchased through the CCLBA in 2021.
Jerk Soule’s founder Judith Smith opened the restaurant as a tribute to her late father, and the restaurant quickly became a welcome addition to the Ashburn food scene.
CCLBA executive director Jessica Caffrey told ABC7, “In the past, buildings like this would have sat vacant for ten or 15 years, but now with visionaries like Judith, it’s now a community asset.”
There’s no better space for a new restaurant than an old restaurant, and organizations like the CCLBA demonstrate that building upcycling programs can be effective. Not every aspiring restaurateur has the money to save an existing space, but if all of our friends can name at least one abandoned restaurant in their neighborhood, isn’t that a problem?
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2025-02-28 08:12:562025-02-28 08:12:56The ghosts of Chicago restaurants past
Reprinted from WOSU. https://www.wosu.org/2025-02-07/how-some-ohio-cities-are-bringing-new-life-to-old-malls
Commercial Asset Preservation can help landlords maintain their vacant shopping malls and ease the transition to a new life for these valuable assets.
Just off Interstate 75 at exit 68 north of Dayton, the Tipp City Plaza once bustled with businesses, offering a convenient spot to pick up groceries, dry cleaning and lunch all in one stop.
These days, though, about half the storefronts are vacant.
An “AVAILABLE” sign leans against a window so dirty people have drawn shapes into the dust.
Next door, at a grocery store abandoned years ago, bags of chips and salsa, bottles of juice and cans of vegetables still line the shelves.
“This is right off the highway — the entrance to our downtown — and this is kind of the first thing you see,” said City Manager Eric Mack. “It’s really not very welcoming or nice looking.”
Erin Gottsacker
/
The Ohio Newsroom
A grocery store once operated in the Tipp City Plaza. It closed in 2019, but bags of snacks and bottles of juice still line the shelves.
So after months of consideration, Tipp City decided to intervene. In December, it agreed to purchase the struggling plaza for almost $7 million, with hopes of redeveloping the space.
Other cities across the state are making similar moves.
Plans to redevelop struggling shopping centers
On the opposite side of Dayton, the City of Middletown purchased the defunct Towne Mall in August. Once a shopping destination, the city is now considering new uses for the space. Residents have suggested pickleball courts, a water park, arcade and skate park.
Just north of Middletown, the city of West Carrollton demolished an old shopping center a few years ago to make way for its new river district — a development that will include apartments and condos, plus a whitewater park for kayaking and river surfing.
Cleveland is offering property tax breaks for a project redeveloping the Galleria Mall. Part of those plans involve creating an entertainment space, where visitors can gather to watch live sports on big screens.
And two projects are underway in the Cincinnati area to repurpose dying malls.
On the east side, Union Township is collaborating with a design firm to re-envision the Eastgate Mall. And to the city’s north, Springdale City Council approved a plan to redevelop the former Tri-County Mall into apartments, hotels and a medical office building.
Ronny Salerno
The main entrance to Middletown’s Towne Mall in 2021
Why are so many malls struggling?
Massive projects like these are necessary because the malls no longer serve the purposes they were built for, says Lee Peterson, a retail expert and executive vice president of strategy for WD Partners in Dublin, Ohio.
“Those malls have become ghost towns,” he said.
His company studies consumer shopping habits. In 2018, they found only about 20% of people preferred to shop online. Today, that number has soared to 70%.
“The pandemic was like letting the genie out of the bottle for online shopping,” Peterson said.
As more people discovered the ease of e-tailers, traffic dropped at strip malls like the Tipp City Plaza and lower-tier indoor malls like Middletown’s Towne Mall. As a result, shopping centers across the country have been devastated.
“Retailers [are] bailing on their leases, or their leases are up and they’re not going to renew. Department stores are closing all across the country. And subsequently, the developers have to do something with these spaces,” Peterson said. “That’s where the cities may step in and say, ‘We’ll give it a try with something completely different.’”
Ronny Salerno
Storefronts are shuttered inside Middletown’s Towne Mall in 2021.
But can cities be successful?
Probably not if they plan on bringing in the same types of chain retailers as before, Peterson said. But if they can find new uses for the land — like housing or green spaces, coworking offices and local coffee roasters — they could be.
Peterson says a popular idea lately is the “15-minute city” — where people can live, work, exercise and have fun all within a 2-mile radius.
“It’s pretty idealistic, but, you know, 10 years from now, we may not think that at all,” he said.
The future of Tipp City Plaza
Tipp City’s plans for its recently purchased plaza start small.
“In the short term, [we’re] trying to make it look a little better for the residents,” Mack said.
The city plans to fill in the potholes that litter the parking lot and touch up the landscaping to help the space feel more inviting.
But the long-term vision is more grand. There’s nothing concrete in place yet, but Mack says the dream is for the property to be a mixed-use space.
“Potentially an apartment building right here,” Mack said, “[and] some retail spaces up closer to Main Street.”
It’ll likely take years before the city can begin redevelopment in earnest, but when it does, Mack is hopeful the area will thrive with city leadership — just like it did so many years ago under private ownership.
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2025-02-17 10:32:252025-02-17 10:32:25How some Ohio cities are bringing new life to old malls
NOTE: These are the types of dreams that CAP can make happen through its property preservation services
SOUTHFIELD, MI – Some local military veterans will soon call a former Michigan hotel their home.
Members of the Tunnel of Towers Foundation, a non-profit which supports first responders, Gold Star families and military veterans, just broke ground on its Detroit Veteran Village in Southfield.
The foundation will renovate the former hotel at 25100 Northwestern Highway into 85 single-occupancy apartments for local veterans.
“We are incredibly proud of the city of Southfield to have the first Tunnel to Towers Veterans Village to break ground in the state of Michigan,” saidthe mayor of Southfield, Kenson Siver. “The opening of this facility is a positive step forward in addressing the serious problem of homelessness amongst our veterans, not just in the Detroit Metro area, but across the country.”
And this will be more than just a place for these local veterans to live. Tunnel of Towers Veteran Villages will also offer residents on-site support services including job training, benefits assistance, education assistance, medical care access, mental health support + PTSD counseling and addiction treatment.
“A couple of years ago we made a powerful and important commitment – to eradicate homelessness amongst veterans across the U.S.,” said Jeanna DellaRagione, executive VP of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. “We are here to ensure our Veterans here in Detroit and the surrounding area of Michigan are never forgotten.”
There are currently Tunnel to Towers Veteran Villages in Houston, Texas; Riverside, California; West Los Angeles, California; and Phoenix, Arizona with construction underway at facilities in Florida, Georgia, New York, Colorado, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Full article: https://www.mlive.com/news/2024/10/abandoned-michigan-hotel-to-be-transformed-into-affordable-housing-for-veterans.html
Please note that CAP was not involved in the maintenance of this particular property.
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2024-11-19 08:42:012024-11-19 09:07:58Abandoned Michigan hotel to be transformed into affordable housing for veterans
Vacant or abandoned retail property can often take a beating during winter. Few or no tenants combined with security and weather conditions leave retailers at risk for disaster. If a property is not properly winterized, property issues such as freeze damage, burst pipes, and flooding can happen. In situations where there is no one working inside of a building and therefore, nobody is available to observe the condition of that property during cold spells, freeze damage can occur unabated and without warning. History has shown that even properties in traditional warmer locales, including the southeastern U.S., can be victim to dangerous cold temperatures subjecting these properties to damage caused by temperatures that drop below 32 F (freeze level).
BEST PRACTICE IMPLEMENTED
Managing a vacant retail property through the cold winter months requires consideration of certain factors:
Location: Above all, it is a store’s geographic location that is the primary factor in determining whether it is necessary and when to winterize. Winterization should be performed in virtually every state in the U.S. The only exceptions are Florida (south of Jacksonville), Hawaii, Nevada (other than the Reno/Lake Tahoe area), and those Arizona and California properties located less than 2,000 feet above sea level. This list clearly indicates that any property that is located in an area in which freezing temperatures can occur should be winterized. As far as when to winterize, service must be performed on a newly vacant building between October 1 and March 31. Previously and newly vacant buildings should be winterized starting in early September if the property is located in a northern climate. In many states it is permissible and strongly recommended to winterize all year round. This list includes: Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and more.
Security: A building must be completely secured before winterizing it. Security should always be the number one concern for a vacant property. It is especially important during the wintertime because vagrants may try to access a vacant property for shelter against the elements, or worse, vandalize the property. Poorly protected or unprotected property can impact the cost of winterizing a property or lead to freeze damage. It is not uncommon for water pipes and electrical lines at a vacant property to be stolen for their copper all year round. If the pipes contain running water during the winter, there will be significant monetary losses from copper theft as the water will eventually cover the ground and freeze. Proper winterization stops water from running through the pipes.
Maintaining Heat: The best protection against freeze damage is maintaining building heat. A trade-off exists between the risk of freeze damage and the cost to continue operating heat. In all cases, freeze damage is much more costly then maintaining a minimal temperature in the building. If the property has a fire suppression system fully charged with water then it is crucial to make sure heat is maintained in the building to keep the pipes from freezing. Minimal heat can be as low as 55 to 60 degrees, as long as many ceiling tiles are propped up to allow air to circulate. Winterizing of the fire suppression system itself is not recommended and in some municipalities may be illegal.
Heating Systems: A commercial property maintenance provider can determine what type of heating system is installed in the building. The type of heating system will determine the sort of winterization service that should be performed. For example, when a property has a boiler system that is operational, it is best to leave it up and running. Draining a boiler can dry out valves causing severe damage and making it problematic for some boilers once water is restored.It is important to have a qualified commercial property maintenance supplier determine if the heating system can hold pressure. It may be necessary to have the supplier make repairs and code improvements to ensure reliability during the winter.
Partial Winterization: A partial winterization should be performed in cases where a retailer’s store is part of a multi-tenant building with some occupied units. A partial winterization consists of:
Maintaining heat in the store because there will still be water in the lines of the vacant unit(s).
Setting thermostats to 55 to 60 degrees F.
Setting the thermostat in the mechanical room or exterior mechanical closet to 65 degrees F.
Operating an electrical heater in the mechanical room or exterior mechanical closet.
Propping up ceiling tiles (those without fire sprinkler heads) throughout the store and in the mechanical room to help the heat circulate above the ceiling.
Turning the water off to the vacant unit fixtures — commodes, sinks and utility sinks.
Pouring antifreeze into the fixtures, floor drains and traps. Be certain to use non-toxic antifreeze.
Wrapping exterior faucets and exposed water pipes along exterior walls with pipe wrap insulation. This is not necessary if a frost-free faucet is present.
Documentation and Signage: Written details along with extensive photographs showing the winterization steps as they are being completed should be used to document the work. In addition, notices should be posted on the front entrance of the store, all water fixtures and in the kitchen/break areas, to indicate that the property has been winterized in order to reduce the risk of the water system being compromised.
Property Checks: Of equal importance to the act of winterizing the vacant store is conducting periodic follow-up inspections after the winterization to check on the condition of the property. Property checks are a prudent and inexpensive business decision. Winterized properties can still incur break-ins, vandalism, copper theft or even the simple use of a faucet or commode by a vagrant or a broker, thereby inviting the risk of a water system breach. Winterization without periodic property checks only provides partial protection against the hazards of cold weather.
RESULTS OF THE BEST PRACTICE
Properly winterizing a building and accompanying the winterization service with periodic property checks virtually eliminates the risk of freeze damage. Proactively taking these property protection actions lowers insurance risk and ensures that a property retains value. Through the performance of a winterization service combined with periodic property checks, retailers can sleep easier at night knowing that their properties in cold weather regions are also resting comfortably all day and night.
VERIFICATION OF EFFICIENCY AND/OR SAVINGS CAPTURED
There are numerous documented instances of freeze damage to properties. Nearly every retail facilities maintenance professional can recall an incident of frozen pipes. Most often freeze damage occurs when a retailer or building owner attempts to save money by choosing not to winterize a property in the hope that the weather never gets cold enough to freeze, or that they can transfer the vacant property to a new owner before freezing temperatures occur. Winter storms cause an average of $1.25 billion in annual losses. The average claim for damage from a frozen pipe is about $18,000. When comparing the average one-time cost of $650 for a retail store winterization and the low cost for an occasional inspection to make sure that the winterization is still intact, clearly it is always best to invest in a professionally managed winterization program. Better to be safe than sorry.
Commercial Asset Preservation is the premier U.S. provider of general maintenance, repair, day porter and inspection services for operating and vacant commercial real estate.
https://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpg00Rob Felberhttps://www.commercialpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/Commercial-Asset-Preservation-logo-3.jpgRob Felber2024-09-04 13:46:512024-09-19 10:29:24How to Avoid a Frozen Vacant Property
Lawmakers look to old school buildings as potential for new housing
/in UncategorizedReprinted from Maine Morning Star
https://mainemorningstar.com/2026/02/17/lawmakers-look-to-old-school-buildings-as-potential-for-new-housing/
Photo taken before Maine Gov. Janet Mills delivers her State of the State address to a joint legislative session in the House of Representatives chamber in Augusta. Jan. 27, 2026. Photo: Jim Neuger
housing.
“Converting vacant schools into housing is a common sense approach to creating affordable and attainable housing in many communities,” Rep. Traci Gere (D-Kennebunkport) told members of the Maine Legislature’s Housing and Economic Development Committee on Tuesday.
The bill, LD 2164, would provide financial and technical assistance to communities to help them convert unused school buildings into housing, including units dedicated to affordable housing.
“As many Maine communities are in the process of making important decisions on next steps for these publicly owned assets, this bill is timely and important,” Gere said.
Maine needs more than 80,000 new housing units by 2030, according to a 2023 statewide housing study. At the same time, old school buildings are centrally located, have the infrastructure in place and are typically beloved by the community, which make them well-primed to be converted into housing, several people testifying in favor of the proposal told the committee during the public hearing.
The Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority already provides technical assistance to municipalities seeking to repurpose old buildings, and is currently helping three Maine towns — Brooks, Liberty and Union — with their redevelopment. But often, vacant school redevelopment projects “don’t prove financially feasible, so they hit a wall, leaving communities with few options for moving forward, especially for small municipalities with limited resources,” Gere told the committee.
That’s why the bill creates an ongoing annual appropriation of $5 million to convert old schools into housing units, with the help of the land bank authority.
Several groups, including MaineHousing, the state’s independent housing authority, the Maine Mayors Coalition, and other economic and real estate development organizations supported the proposal. The Maine Real Estate and Development Association said it has a “ unique opportunity to touch all parts of the state,” since there are almost two dozen vacant school buildings available statewide, according to the Maine Land Bank Authority.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel here, there have been plenty of schools, both in Maine and across the nation, that have been converted into housing,” said Elizabeth Frazier, testifying on behalf of the association. “I think there is an opportunity here for both sides of the aisle to find something that they like in this bill and to come together to really create some housing.”
The land bank authority also supported the proposal, saying that due to demographic trends (such as declining school enrollment) there are even more old school buildings expected to be available for redevelopment in the future.
The organization will continue providing technical support to municipalities even if the bill does not pass, “but with the additional support from this fund, that increases the amount of impact we’re able to have and pushes some of those more long-standing vacancies … back to functional use,” said the group’s programs manager, Gabe Gauvin.
While no one at the public hearing testified against the bill, the Maine Municipal Association opposed it in written testimony. The nonprofit membership organization said Maine cities and towns are struggling with many types of functionally obsolete properties and object to limiting the proposed $5 million allocation to one type of redevelopment, “rather than making it available where the need is greatest,” said advocacy manager Tanya Emery.
https://mainemorningstar.com/2026/02/17/lawmakers-look-to-old-school-buildings-as-potential-for-new-housing/
Inside the effort to fix the Tower District’s vacant building problems
/in UncategorizedReprinted from Fresnoland https://fresnoland.org/2026/01/23/inside-the-effort-to-fix-the-tower-districts-vacant-building-problems/
The Fresno City Council approved two new pilot programs in 2025 that try out strategies for eliminating commercial vacancies in the Tower District neighborhood. by Julianna Morano
A new pilot program for Fresno’s Tower District aims to tackle vacant commercial properties that stay empty longer than a month, including storefronts like the Chicken Pie Shop. Julianna Morano | Fresnoland
What’s at stake?
The Tower District isn’t alone in dealing with long-term vacancies among its commercial buildings. But there are some factors that make its struggle with vacancy unique, including the many properties owned by multiple family members.
In a neighborhood like Fresno’s Tower District, where some storefronts have stood vacant since the Nixon administration, local lawmakers are seeking out new ways to tackle the blight.
But are their tactics working?
Some say it’s too soon to tell.
If that was the proverbial stick, six months later, Perea returned with the carrot: In December, she passed a new one-year incentive program for the Tower District that promised small local businesses rebates of up to 50% of what they pay the city in sales tax for two years if they become tenants of a vacant property.
“We’re doing more to hold negligent property owners accountable,” Perea said of the new programs in a recent interview with Fresnoland. “On the other hand, I want to do whatever I can to help them get their buildings occupied again.”
In the first six months of the older of the two laws, many of these empty properties have stayed empty. But some see other signs of progress in its wake.
“I think it has helped the communication with some of the building owners,” said Cami Cipolla, interim executive director of the Tower District Business Association.
That’s a notable step forward, she added, in tackling the issue of absentee property owners in Tower who don’t live in the area and are difficult to pin down.
Still, no one is claiming victory yet, and that includes Perea.
She said that more time is needed to see what works and what doesn’t with the new vacant building pilot. As for the incentive program that passed last month, Perea’s office has yet to receive any applications — and is working on getting the word out to more businesses.
“We’re going to be, this week, filming a couple promo videos at different spots in the Tower District, so we can better get the word out,” she said. “Simply passing an agenda item doesn’t necessarily tell folks what’s going on.”
Others think the city may not have found the right combination of strategies for eliminating vacancies yet.
Arias, who co-sponsored the vacant building pilot program with Perea, said a goal for the remaining year of his term at City Hall is to introduce a vacancy tax for some property owners. That would add onto the existing property tax bill of building owners whose properties stay vacant for a certain period.
“The fact is, a vacant property costs the public a lot more resources than (an) occupied property, both in police and fire time and code enforcement,” Arias said. “If somebody is going to intentionally keep their property vacant, the rest of the public should not have to pay or subsidize the amount of public resources required to maintain that property.”
But not everyone feels confident the stick — or even two sticks — will move the needle on commercial vacancies.
That includes Scott Miller, head of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce.
Miller co-owns multiple Tower businesses, and is also the owner of a vacant commercial property in the program’s pilot zone off of Olive and Vagedes. He said he’s been “treated very fairly” under the new program, but is still concerned it “presupposes” owners can rent or sell their properties more quickly “if they try harder,” when that’s not always the case.
“It’s been vacant for a little while,” he said of his property, which started as a nursery and was most recently home to an ice cream shop before it became vacant last March. “But that’s how it works. I want to get somebody in there, but it’s not outrageous with a property like this that’s so unique and different.”
Veronica Stumpf, a commercial real estate broker with clients in the Tower, said she hasn’t seen the new pilot programs inspire a change in behavior from the property owners she works with “just yet.”
“What I’m seeing is owners often become more willing to sell only after a fire or major incident happens,” she said, “which is exactly what this ordinance is trying to prevent.”
What do the new vacant building programs in Tower require?
The vacant commercial building pilot comes with new requirements for owners in Tower. For one, the owner of any boarded-up building must make their property ready for occupancy within four months of when it’s first boarded up.
There are some exceptions for owners to blow past those 120 days: For example, if the building has an active permit and the owner is “progressing diligently” toward permitted construction.
There’s also an exception for properties the City Attorney’s Office declares aren’t a “nuisance” — a requirement Perea said was intended to give the code enforcement team flexibility.
“I have not seen our City Attorney’s Office abuse that definition,” she said. “If it gets to a point where somebody from the community feels like we are not adequately using that definition the way they see fit, you know, I’m happy to look at that.”
Vacant property owners must also, under the pilot program, add information about their space to a registry if it’s vacant longer than 30 days. That information includes contact information for the owners, any agent or representative they may have and anyone with “legal interest in the property,” as well as the date on which the property became vacant. This information builds on existing requirements already under the city’s Blighted Vacant Building Ordinance that’s been on the books since 2003, according to Fresno Municipal Code.
Since the pilot took effect last summer, Perea told Fresnoland that 55 notices have been issued to vacant property owners.
Of those, 23 of those cases were subsequently closed because code enforcement determined the property wasn’t actually vacant.
Another 20 of those cases have since closed because the property owners came into compliance.
“Whether it was broken windows that they went and fixed,” Perea said, “whatever the issue was, they addressed them.”
Nine of the 55 cases remain open. Perea said a majority of those cases remain active since property owners have yet to remedy violations, while a handful are because the city hasn’t been able to get in touch with the owners.
Some properties along Fern Avenue in Fresno’s Tower District have sat vacant for decades. Julianna Morano | Fresnoland
As for the tax incentive program, Perea said the eligibility criteria were written with mom-and-pop shops in mind. For instance, applicants are required to have a minimum of three employees, and chains aren’t eligible.
That’s mainly due to the results of a previous incarnation of this small business incentive program, Perea said, which aimed to revitalize businesses along what was then called Kings Canyon Boulevard (now Cesar Chavez Boulevard). The only business that ended up taking advantage then was a Taco Bell.
The Tower District Business Association was pleased to see the provision barring chain stores written into the pilot legislation.
“That was definitely a concern that our membership had. Is this going to benefit these businesses or these companies that can afford $200,000 renovations and whatnot,” said Cipolla, the organization’s interim executive director, “but then we lose our uniqueness in Tower?
“I just can’t picture a Chili’s going into Chicken Pie Shop,” she added, the latter being a multiyear vacancy in the heart of the Tower on Olive and Wishon. “Especially when you’ve got a place like Irene’s that’s just right there on the corner. We have people that have been going to that restaurant for 30 years.”
How severe are commercial vacancies in Tower?
Though the Tower District is ground zero for some of the city’s new approaches for targeting empty storefronts, it has a slightly lower commercial vacancy rate than the city as a whole.
Tower’s rate sat at roughly 5.3% as of mid-January, while the City of Fresno’s was higher at 7.5%. That’s according to data from CoStar, a commercial real estate analytics platform, provided to Fresnoland by the Fresno Economic Development Corporation.
Tower came in at a lower commercial vacancy rate than downtown Fresno, where the rate was about 6.8%, as well as southeast Fresno, where the rate was 12.4% by CoStar’s estimates. Woodward Park, on the other hand, has a slightly lower vacancy rate than Tower at 4.8%.
At the same time, CoStar figures show Tower has the lowest “absorption rate” of all these regions of the city at -2.4%. That rate measures how quickly commercial real estate is taken off the market, compared to how much gets added.
In that sense, positive absorption means “there’s more space being leased than what is being added to the market,” Stumpf said — a sign of a recovering or expanding market.
A negative rate like Tower’s, on the other hand, means “new space is being delivered faster than what could be leased” — the signs of “hyper-supply” in the market, she added.
While commercial vacancies plague multiple neighborhoods, Tower’s issue with vacancies has some unique factors. For instance, many of its property owners are families with “multiple decision-makers” in charge, Stumpf said, some of whom may live outside of California.
“A lot of the property owners are asset-rich, but they’re cash-strapped,” she added, “meaning they’re families that have inherited these properties, and they have a fair amount of real estate, but they don’t have the resources to rehabilitate their property, or they can’t quite get their family members on the same page to lease their properties, or they’re in a position where they can offer their property for half market rent, but they don’t have the capital upfront to make tenant improvements.”
Those costs then fall to the businesses looking to rent the space, not many of whom are willing to spend between $250,000 and $500,000 on improvements to a building they’ll ultimately lease rather than own, Stumpf said.
Cipolla is facing this dilemma with her own plans for a Tower business. Her dream is to open an arcade of sorts, where families living in the neighborhood could have fun “playing old-school PacMan.” She also envisions boardgame rooms, plus drinks and small bites for patrons after dark.
She has her sights set on the vacant Chicken Pie Shop for this endeavor. But imagining the renovation costs for that property is daunting.
“I’ve tried to get in touch with (the owners) multiple times, and it’s gone nowhere. But my understanding is it’s completely gutted on the inside,” she said, “which means you’ve got to start from the bottom up.”
Different philosophies on how to tackle vacancies
Finding the right strategy to combat vacancies often comes down to the strength of a given market, said Alan Mallach, a senior fellow with the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit focused on tackling vacant properties.
“The real question is,” he said, “is there demand there for all of this space?”
“If you’re looking at a really distressed neighborhood, and there are people who are walking away from houses because they don’t have much value, sticks in that kind of context are really a pretty bad idea,” he added. “In an area with a strong market, where there are people who want to get into storefronts and run stores and restaurants and things like that, it could be helpful.”
Arias, who represents the Tower District south of Olive as well as downtown and Chinatown, believes “the stick has been necessary” to force negligent landlords to maintain basic health and safety standards for their buildings in his district. By bringing forward a vacancy tax in the next year, he hopes to work toward subsidizing the financial burden of problematic vacant properties that otherwise falls largely on taxpayers.
“Some of the properties in my district, I’ve learned, are intentionally vacant,” he said. “There’s very little incentive that the city could generate to convince them to develop.”
But incentive programs like the new one in Tower can also have a place in a city’s broader strategy, Mallach said — although businesses aren’t necessarily the only one to try targeting.
“Having carrots for landlords — not just tenants — I think can be useful,” he said.
Mallach said he’s seen other cities offer low-interest loan programs to rehabilitate their properties.
Stumpf pointed to other initiatives from the city that could help her clients in Tower, such as expediting the permit process, streamlining approvals for basic tenant improvement plans and having dedicated case managers for rehabilitative projects in the pilot zone.
“Owners need tools,” she said, “not just deadlines.”
For Miller’s vacant building, he said he was planning “to do the right thing anyway” and find a new tenant for the property, with or without the new pilot program. He thinks he’s far from the only owner with that mindset.
“Nobody that I’m aware of buys a building and invests in a building,” he said, “to leave it vacant.”
He said he’s eager to see the broader results of the vacant commercial building pilot over the course of the 12-month pilot.
“If we can point to a building that’s been vacant for multiple years that is now not, and it’s as a result of this program, then it’s successful,” he said. “If not, it’s just another layer of stuff that business owners need to navigate.”
Shore Capital Partners Announces the Launch of Maintera Facility Services and Welcomes Commercial Asset Preservation (CAP) to the Platform
/in UncategorizedReal Estate industry entrepreneur, Marc Insul of Cleveland, Ohio, co-founder, president and COO of Commercial Asset Preservation, established in 2009, sells the company to Shore Capital Partners of Chicago.
Mr. Insul remains in the position of president and COO.
Shore Capital Partners Announces the Launch of Maintera Facility Services and Welcomes Commercial Asset Preservation (CAP) to the Platform
Maintera Facility Services launches as a national platform for comprehensive facility management solutions across operating and vacant properties.
CHICAGO (January 21, 2026) – Shore Capital Partners (“Shore” or “Shore Capital”) is pleased to announce the formation of Maintera Facility Services (“Maintera”), a leading platform providing outsourced commercial facility management and vacant property services. Additionally, Maintera has acquired Commercial Asset Preservation, LLC (“CAP”), a provider of property maintenance and inspection services – with a deep expertise in vacant property portfolios – to multi-site clients in the food & beverage, retail, industrial, institutional, office, hospitality, and convenience store end markets.
The launch of Maintera follows Shore’s December 2024 investment in TCG Services, LLC (“TCG”), a provider of on-demand break-fix facility management solutions for multi-site customers in the consumer, financial, healthcare, transportation, technology, and other end markets. Maintera combines the strengths of TCG’s maintenance and repair capabilities with CAP’s property maintenance and inspection expertise to deliver a seamless experience for customers managing both operating and vacant locations. Through the Maintera platform, customers benefit from a single point of accountability, shared best practices, and access to expanded technical resources while maintaining TCG and CAP’s operational expertise and leading responsiveness.
Under the Maintera platform, customers can rely on a single partner for both operating and vacant sites, enabling faster response times, greater consistency, and a higher standard of service across every interaction. Maintera will continue to invest in technology, process innovation, and scale to better serve its customers’ complex, multi-location portfolios.
“Bringing TCG and CAP together under the Maintera brand is a powerful step forward for our customers and our teams,” said David Jaffee, CEO of Maintera. “We’re combining two highly respected operators with complementary strengths to better support customers across the full lifecycle of their properties. With Shore’s support, we’re building a platform that delivers broader coverage, deeper expertise, and a more consistent customer experience at scale.”
“The launch of Maintera reflects Shore’s continued conviction in the outsourced facility management sector and our belief that our customers benefit from platforms built around execution,” said Matt Matosian, Principal at Shore Capital. “TCG and CAP are outstanding businesses with synergistic service offerings and strong cultures. We’re excited to support their continued growth as Maintera builds a leading national platform.”
Both TCG and CAP will continue to operate under their existing names as part of the Maintera platform. To learn more about Maintera, TCG, and CAP, please visit www.maintera.com.
About Maintera Facility Services
Maintera Facility Services is a leading national provider of comprehensive facility management services to multi-site customers, coordinating on-demand facility repairs, preventative maintenance & inspection, capital expenditure projects, and vacant property services across a variety of service lines. Maintera is headquartered in Chicago, IL, and is comprised of TCG Services, LLC, based in El Dorado, KS, and Commercial Asset Preservation, LLC, based in Salt Lake City, UT. To learn more about Maintera, please visit www.maintera.com.
About Commercial Asset Preservation
Commercial Asset Preservation provides property maintenance and inspection solutions to both operating and vacant site portfolios for multi-site customers. CAP is based in Salt Lake City, UT. To learn more about CAP, please visit www.commercialpreservation.com.
About TCG Services
TCG Services is a provider of on-demand break-fix facility management solutions for multi-site customers in the consumer, financial, healthcare, transportation, and technology end markets. TCG is based in El Dorado, KS. To learn more about TCG, please visit: www.tcgfm.com.
About Shore Capital Partners
Shore Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm with an office in Nashville, is an investor in lower-middle market companies in the Healthcare, Food and Beverage, Business Services, Industrial, and Real Estate industries. Shore’s strategy is to support management partners to grow faster with less risk through access to capital, world-class board and operational resources, and unmatched networking, development, and shared learnings across the portfolio. From 2020-2025, Shore received recognition from Inc. Magazine as a 6x Top Founder Friendly Investor and by Pitchbook Research for leading U.S. Private Equity deal volume for the past 10 years, from 2015-2024. Shore targets investments in proven, successful private companies with superior management teams, stable cash flow, and significant potential to grow through industry consolidation and organic growth to generate value for shareholders. Shore has approximately $14 billion of assets under management and in additional investment platforms to which it provides business and operational consulting services. To learn more about Shore Capital Partners, please visit www.shorecp.com.
Critical Conversations: NRTA 2025 Addresses Responsible Approaches to Homelessness and Property Safety in Commercial Real Estate
/in UncategorizedOur president and COO, Marc Insul, on a panel discussion at NRTA 2025. Written by fellow panelist, Arnall Golden Gregory LLP
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/critical-conversations-nrta-2025-1795827/
Key Takeaways
When facing concerns related to individuals experiencing homelessness or (separate but, with occasional overlap) vandalism, retail location operators often find themselves on the front lines of store safety, customer experience, and compassionate community care. These issues affect many of our operating and non-operating locations nationwide, yet retailers and owners may feel like they’re winging it when it comes to protocols for handling these situations. While we found no easy answers, our panel at NRTA 2025 on “Vandalism and the Unhoused: Best Practices” for commercial tenants, landlords, and owners sought to share real solutions.
The Conversation
Highlights
Vandalism and homelessness are not the same issue, and people experiencing homelessness are not a threat in all cases. Everyone from store staff to building owners seems to know this, and are seeking nuanced guidance on how to handle different situations as they arise.
Sometimes 911 is the right call. What is worth a police call: theft, vandalism, harassment or threatening behavior, trespassing after a warning, or genuine safety threats (to others or to the individual themselves).
But what about non-emergency matters that are affecting customer or staff experience? Being homeless, by itself, isn’t illegal. So, who to call?
Make sure retail staff has contact information for the on-site security provider (if any). Landlords, ask the security provider to provide you with specific steps for how that provider handles unhoused persons in a range of behavior situations, from sleeping to aggressive behaviors.
Community hotlines and resources. Run a web or AI-assisted search for specific 911 alternatives in your property’s location. Build relationships early, so you can reach these organizations easily when you need them. Look for:
Know your local community organization neighbors. Postlewait’s advice was simple but powerful: get to know the homeless service providers, business development folks, and advocacy organizations in your markets before you have a problem, not after.
Design matters. Better lighting. Strategic planters. Benches with armrests. Insul reminded everyone that thoughtful environmental design prevents issues without making your property look like a fortress.
Lease language? Leases may indicate that landlords have a right to manage access to the property and remove persons who, in landlord’s judgment, are (for example) overly intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. In jurisdictions where only the property owner, not the tenant or operator, can legally request removal of a person from the property, consider including lease language stating that the landlord will reasonably cooperate with tenant in requesting removal, and make sure the landlord has provided a contact person for such a situation. For vandalism, the lease may allocate security responsibilities and costs of security-incident-related damage. Tenants should be aware of what security landlord is or is not providing, and design its own security to fill the gaps.
Listen to your security teams. As asset managers will tell you, private security regularly deals with nonviolent but aggressive behaviors, such as spitting and verbal attacks. Communicate with your security teams about how they de-escalate these occurrences. Understanding their protocols helps landlords, tenants, and operators anticipate the process for various situations. If you have a relationship with a community organization as described here, consider linking the security team with that organization for designing approaches.
Train your people. People tend to be compassionate, and situations with unhoused or otherwise struggling persons are challenging for staff who are not social workers and are trying to run a business. Give frontline staff actual scripts, such as:
And yes, establish code words to use with the asset manager or security when things go sideways.
If you have a relationship with local code enforcement, a 911-alternative provider, or community organization that provides rapid response, include those numbers in your staff protocol.
Everyone is doing the best they can, and real estate develops communities in all kinds of ways. Empathy abounded in the room during this discussion. None of this is easy and, for real estate owners and operators, difficult lines will need to be drawn. But if we zoom out, real estate and retail are naturally influential partners with community development and advocacy organizations to guide both growth and approaches to community concerns.
Minnesota Malls Could Find New Life As Residential Spaces
/in UncategorizedReprinted from B105 https://b105country.com/malls-apartments-minnesota/
There’s a trend starting to catch on that may save the once-great concept of malls in Minnesota. Malls used to be vibrant shopping centers when brick-and-mortar stores were the way people got their goods. Retail sales have dropped significantly since 2001, with online shopping to blame.
How Shopping Malls Are Being Transformed Into Apartments In The U.S.
In our busy lives, it’s so much easier to buy things with “one click” through Amazon while sitting on the couch at home. But what about when you need something right now, and you can’t wait for shipping? There’s a case for keeping retail stores locally.
Unfortunately, so many malls have seen retail businesses close. Many malls across the US have vacant storefronts. Vandalism can become a problem, and these huge complexes take up valuable real estate and sit empty.
Creating Apartments In Malls
There’s a new trend that’s catching on that makes perfect sense here in Minnesota. Developers are turning vacant stores and spaces in malls into apartments. Whether they completely gut it or redevelop the space, it’s creating a solution to housing issues.
It’s a win-win. There’s plenty of parking available at malls already. Malls are in prime accessible real estate locations near main roadways, and often in the center of the community.
Dead Malls Season 5 Episode 23 – Burnsville Center
Subscribe to B105 on
Bringing Retail Back
Foot traffic from residents in the mall can bring retail stores back. Coffee, food shops, and convenience stores all would make perfect sense. The mall would still be open to the public and residents.
Minnesota is notorious for its long, harsh winters. Wouldn’t it be something if you could get everything you need without going out into the cold? Redevelopment of malls could be a great idea for communities to revitalize struggling retail spaces, making it safer for the community and helping solve housing issues.
Read More: Reimagining Retail: Minnesota Malls Turned Into Housing | https://b105country.com/malls-apartments-minnesota/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
Elev8 Fun Is Buying Vacant Department Stores and Turning Them Into Indoor Adventure Parks
/in UncategorizedReprinted from ICSC
April 2, 2025
Elev8 Fun is turning vacant department stores into indoor adventure parks that offer everything from laser tag and arcade games to go-karts and bowling. The company has two locations open in Tampa and Orlando, Florida, and four more in the pipeline that it expects to open within 12 months. The ownership team sees even more growth potential in Florida and is eyeing the Northeast as a likely first step in its national expansion. Commerce + Communities Today contributing editor Beth Mattson-Teig spoke with principal and managing partner David Goldfarb about Elev8 Fun’s real estate footprint and growth plans.
David Goldfarb is the principal and managing partner of both Elev8 Fun and Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Photo courtesy of Elev8 Fun
You’ve described your concept as a 2.0 version of Dave & Buster’s. Tell us a bit about the atmosphere you’re creating at Elev8 Fun.
Elev8 mimics one of our first locations, Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale. Xtreme Action is a 200,000-square-foot family entertainment center, which won an [American Amusement Machine Association] award in 2018 as the best family entertainment center in the country. [For that concept], we bought a 350,000-square-foot warehouse and converted the warehouse into [commercial] condos and used 200,000 square feet for entertainment. Xtreme Action Park was unusual because it was a warehouse that happened to be located on I-95, which is the main traffic corridor, and it had ample parking. It was so successful that we wanted to see how we could expand, but the location is really a unicorn. Our first thought was that all these department stores are going out of business within malls. Why don’t we see if we can buy [them]? We bought our first department store, a Sears, in 2019 in Sanford [north of Orlando], and then we bought another Sears in Tampa.
When did your first two Elev8 Fun adventure parks open?
We were going through construction when COVID hit, and we had a massive delay in opening. The first Elev8 opened Jan. 1, 2022, at the Seminole Towne Center mall in [Sanford], which is currently being redeveloped. They are demoing the property and putting in 700 apartments, a hotel and a Costco, as well as a lot of individual stores. It’s going to be extremely helpful to us. From there, we opened Elev8 in Tampa, and it’s doing excellent. It was a former Westfield property that was converted.
We’re taking 125,000 square feet and becoming what we call this 800-pound gorilla where we have everything for everyone from 4 years old up to 80 years old. We have indoor go-karts, approximately 180 arcade machines, laser tag, mini golf, bowling, a ropes course, an event space and our own food hall, which includes California Pizza Kitchen and MrBeast Burger, along with other big names.
Elev8 Fun locations include indoor go-karts, approximately 180 arcade machines, laser tag, mini golf, bowling, ropes courses, event spaces and food halls. Photo courtesy of Elev8 Fun
Is Elev8 a spinoff from Xtreme Action Park, or is it evolving in different ways?
Xtreme was so successful, but it was hard to duplicate because it’s hard to buy that square footage with ample parking. The idea of these department stores came into play, and it has been extremely fruitful. Our first location in Sanford came with eight acres of parking, and we are now building a Marriott hotel on the property, which we’re doing as a joint venture. We’re expanding outside of our core business of family entertainment centers, and we’ve really become a real estate company. Originally, we bought these facilities for our own purpose, but we’ve figured out how to utilize the additional real estate for other purposes.
With an average footprint of roughly 125,000 square feet, Elev8 Fun aims to be a one-stop shop for family entertainment. Photo courtesy of Elev8 Fun
You have two locations open. What else do you have in the pipeline?
We went to [an] ICSC conference and met with Simon Property Group, and they really liked what we’re doing. Our next three locations are all in Simon malls. We bought directly from Simon at Jensen Beach, which is north of Palm Beach. That store will open in April, and it will be our third location. Our fourth store is in Miami, in a former Kohl’s. These are all approximately the same size, about 125,000 square feet. In August, we’re buying our fifth store in Jacksonville, and then we have a sixth location that will also be in [North] Miami. At every location, we own the real estate and do our own internal construction.
We’re looking to open as many as 10 more locations in Florida, and then we’re looking to head to the Northeast and start in New York and New Jersey.
How are you financing your growth?
So far, we have no debt. We have been purchasing these with all cash, including all the construction and all the attractions. Back in 2023, my first company was called PrimeTime Amusements, which was an arcade company. I sold that to a private equity group called H.I.G. Capital. By coincidence, two of my closest friends wanted to buy minority shares in Elev8, and they came in with me, so, the company is a combination of three friends, but I’m the principal and I own the majority of shares.
What do you look for in a potential location, especially as you expand in the Northeast?
We’re looking for areas with at least 300,000 people within a 20-mile radius. We’re looking to branch off with groups like Simon Property Group and Brookfield, among others, because they know how to run these malls. There are mall operators that are struggling, and large parts of malls are being redeveloped. We have no problem being an independent at the location as long as the mall is being redeveloped. As long as we’re in an area where the energy is good, we have no problem.
“We have no problem being an independent at the location as long as the mall is being redeveloped. As long as we’re in an area where the energy is good, we have no problem.”
How do you see Elev8 fitting into the broader category of experiential entertainment?
We try to cater to all audiences. Now we’re implementing Elev8 Kids, which is an area for kids between ages 4 and 10. Then we have our food hall, which also includes a sports bar where we’ll have six to eight different food categories within our facility with all brand names and with full liquor. We’ll have about 65 TVs within the venue.
What kind of runway do you think the sector has?
There are not many options when you have a mall that consists of 1 million-plus square feet and these department stores within them. I would say that 95% of America can’t handle that much retail. They’re going to need subcategories, and entertainment is a major subcategory that brings in a lot of people. This is why we’re very welcome with operators like Simon Property Group.
Elev8 Fun bowling Photo courtesy of Elev8 Fun
The ghosts of Chicago restaurants past
/in UncategorizedReprinted from the Reader
For more than a hundred years, Dinkel’s Bakery was the hookup for baked goods in Lakeview and Roscoe Village; its iconic sign served as a beacon for everyday carb-seekers and musicians loitering at the Chicago Music Exchange across the street.
Dinkel’s closed its doors in 2022. Look through the storefront windows today and you’ll see a mess of old equipment, garbage, and other wayward debris. Less than a block away, what was once McGuigan’s Irish Pub still has dusty beer bottles visible through its windows.
Whether it’s Pick Me Up Cafe’s old Lakeview location, Leona’s in Rogers Park, or Marcello’s Father & Son in Logan Square, it seems like one is never more than a Malört bottle’s throw from a shuttered restaurant, cafe, or bar. Restaurants close for a variety of reasons, but what keeps the buildings vacant long after the tenant moves out?
Allan Perales, chief operating officer of commercial real estate firm Goldstreet Partners, says food service spaces can remain vacant for years for reasons ranging from immovably high rent to stalled redevelopment plans to pending legal disputes. It’s also not uncommon for prospective tenants to avoid certain buildings due to stigma, or for spaces to remain empty for years simply due to poor marketing on the landlord’s part.
“Challenges with landlords, such as reputational issues or difficulty during negotiations, can also prolong vacancies,” says Perales. “A landlord–tenant relationship is similar to a partnership. It works well when things are going smoothly, but difficulties arise when challenges like late payments occur.”
Just one of these issues can keep a tenantless storefront vacant for years at a time—a neighborhood haunt turned into a neighborhood specter.
Credit: Shira Friedman-Parks
Owners of storefronts that sit vacant for more than 30 days are required by the city to register the property and to follow insurance and maintenance guidelines laid out by the Chicago Department of Buildings. City data shows 37,088 vacant and abandoned buildings have been reported to Chicago’s nonemergency 311 call center since 2010. Additionally, 5,004 vacant building violations have been reported since 2011.
The Loop saw its all-time highest retail vacancy rate in 2023, at over 30 percent; it was the culmination of a four-year trend beginning in 2019 and largely attributed to the pandemic. The city does not track data on the specific number of restaurant and building vacancies, and violations reported by citizens only tell so much of the story.
A space will sometimes be leased but still sit inactive for years. In July 2023, developer PCR Group submitted plans for the Dinkel’s space to be redeveloped into a 66,000-square-foot mixed-use building.
Nicole Alexander, founder and principal designer of Siren Betty Design, says empty restaurant and food-service spaces can be especially prone to poor aging.
“Moisture is the most immediate threat when a space is vacant,” says Alexander. “Damage can show up after a couple months or even weeks of being empty. Also rodents. I’ve never known a restaurant to do a deep clean before they close permanently.”
Food waste is another major issue, especially in cases where a business is forced to close abruptly. When all Foxtrot stores simultaneously closed last April, Eater Chicago reported many stores still contained unsold inventory as late as October of that same year.
“After five years, the bar could be rotted, the drywall moldy, the doors and shelving warped, toilets and sinks stained, HVAC and pipes rusty, leather upholstery dried and cracked. After ten years, you probably need a whole new everything,” says Alexander.
She says extensive renovations can cost roughly $250–$450 per square foot.
“Surface damage is easy to see and also relatively easy to fix. It’s what’s hiding underneath that can really make or break a budget.”
“We’ve also worked on projects where our client is so excited about the space and the location,” she says. “But then we get in there and realize that there’s massive damage from a burst pipe, or the sewer lines are a disaster, or some other huge, expensive fix.”
It’s all a very roundabout way of saying: yes, space left to rot for a decade will suck to renovate.
Restaurateur Mike Chen, who also manages Kyuramen in River North, worked with Perales to purchase a space in River North that had sat vacant for more than a decade.
“I don’t know why [the building] was vacant for that long,” says Chen. “Maybe there were other interested parties, and they couldn’t come to the right terms. It’s a good space with a corner spot, very high visibility on LaSalle and Hubbard. . . . I knew there had been several changes of ownership.”
Chen says that the two-level space, formerly a restaurant called Vinyl, was well maintained by the landlord at the time it was purchased.
“Sadly, that’s not typically the case,” says Alexander. “In Chicago, landlords tend to own multiple properties, so they’re not always diligent about maintaining them in between tenants.”
As Chen prepares for renovation, he says his biggest expense will be the removal of a large iron hood left behind by the previous tenant.
“Yes, it’s very common for equipment to be left behind,” Alexander says. “Typically cooktops, hoods, and some bar equipment can be serviced and salvaged. But many times the equipment that has been left isn’t what the new tenant is looking for.”
Even if a space is maintained well enough to ward off decay, shifting building codes can still require prohibitively expensive renovations. “For example,” says Perales, “restaurants built in the 1990s might need to replace exhaust systems to meet current codes, and these costs can skyrocket, particularly in high-rise buildings.”
General contracting company Vero Design + Build cofounder Josh Veselsky notes that regardless of what shape it might be in, working with a space meant for food service is always preferable to converting a building into something food-service friendly.
Credit: Shira Friedman-Parks
“Oftentimes a vacant restaurant will have outdated construction that needs to be brought up to current code compliance or supplement with new technology, but a vacant restaurant usually ticks a lot more boxes than, say, a vacant currency exchange,” says Veselsky. “We’ve renovated banks, office spaces, retail stores, lofts, and even boats and churches into restaurant spaces, and the efforts and costs are always greater to bring restaurant-specific systems into a building that a restaurant did not previously inhabit.”
The Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) was created in 2013 to actively purchase vacant properties. Though abandoned restaurant spaces aren’t the organization’s primary focus, 2024 saw soul food and Jamaican restaurant Jerk Soule, originally a food truck, open inside an abandoned building in Ashburn, purchased through the CCLBA in 2021.
Jerk Soule’s founder Judith Smith opened the restaurant as a tribute to her late father, and the restaurant quickly became a welcome addition to the Ashburn food scene.
CCLBA executive director Jessica Caffrey told ABC7, “In the past, buildings like this would have sat vacant for ten or 15 years, but now with visionaries like Judith, it’s now a community asset.”
There’s no better space for a new restaurant than an old restaurant, and organizations like the CCLBA demonstrate that building upcycling programs can be effective. Not every aspiring restaurateur has the money to save an existing space, but if all of our friends can name at least one abandoned restaurant in their neighborhood, isn’t that a problem?
How some Ohio cities are bringing new life to old malls
/in UncategorizedReprinted from WOSU. https://www.wosu.org/2025-02-07/how-some-ohio-cities-are-bringing-new-life-to-old-malls
Commercial Asset Preservation can help landlords maintain their vacant shopping malls and ease the transition to a new life for these valuable assets.
Just off Interstate 75 at exit 68 north of Dayton, the Tipp City Plaza once bustled with businesses, offering a convenient spot to pick up groceries, dry cleaning and lunch all in one stop.
These days, though, about half the storefronts are vacant.
An “AVAILABLE” sign leans against a window so dirty people have drawn shapes into the dust.
Next door, at a grocery store abandoned years ago, bags of chips and salsa, bottles of juice and cans of vegetables still line the shelves.
“This is right off the highway — the entrance to our downtown — and this is kind of the first thing you see,” said City Manager Eric Mack. “It’s really not very welcoming or nice looking.”
So after months of consideration, Tipp City decided to intervene. In December, it agreed to purchase the struggling plaza for almost $7 million, with hopes of redeveloping the space.
Other cities across the state are making similar moves.
Plans to redevelop struggling shopping centers
On the opposite side of Dayton, the City of Middletown purchased the defunct Towne Mall in August. Once a shopping destination, the city is now considering new uses for the space. Residents have suggested pickleball courts, a water park, arcade and skate park.
Just north of Middletown, the city of West Carrollton demolished an old shopping center a few years ago to make way for its new river district — a development that will include apartments and condos, plus a whitewater park for kayaking and river surfing.
Cleveland is offering property tax breaks for a project redeveloping the Galleria Mall. Part of those plans involve creating an entertainment space, where visitors can gather to watch live sports on big screens.
And two projects are underway in the Cincinnati area to repurpose dying malls.
On the east side, Union Township is collaborating with a design firm to re-envision the Eastgate Mall. And to the city’s north, Springdale City Council approved a plan to redevelop the former Tri-County Mall into apartments, hotels and a medical office building.
Why are so many malls struggling?
Massive projects like these are necessary because the malls no longer serve the purposes they were built for, says Lee Peterson, a retail expert and executive vice president of strategy for WD Partners in Dublin, Ohio.
“Those malls have become ghost towns,” he said.
His company studies consumer shopping habits. In 2018, they found only about 20% of people preferred to shop online. Today, that number has soared to 70%.
“The pandemic was like letting the genie out of the bottle for online shopping,” Peterson said.
As more people discovered the ease of e-tailers, traffic dropped at strip malls like the Tipp City Plaza and lower-tier indoor malls like Middletown’s Towne Mall. As a result, shopping centers across the country have been devastated.
“Retailers [are] bailing on their leases, or their leases are up and they’re not going to renew. Department stores are closing all across the country. And subsequently, the developers have to do something with these spaces,” Peterson said. “That’s where the cities may step in and say, ‘We’ll give it a try with something completely different.’”
But can cities be successful?
Probably not if they plan on bringing in the same types of chain retailers as before, Peterson said. But if they can find new uses for the land — like housing or green spaces, coworking offices and local coffee roasters — they could be.
Peterson says a popular idea lately is the “15-minute city” — where people can live, work, exercise and have fun all within a 2-mile radius.
“It’s pretty idealistic, but, you know, 10 years from now, we may not think that at all,” he said.
The future of Tipp City Plaza
Tipp City’s plans for its recently purchased plaza start small.
“In the short term, [we’re] trying to make it look a little better for the residents,” Mack said.
The city plans to fill in the potholes that litter the parking lot and touch up the landscaping to help the space feel more inviting.
But the long-term vision is more grand. There’s nothing concrete in place yet, but Mack says the dream is for the property to be a mixed-use space.
“Potentially an apartment building right here,” Mack said, “[and] some retail spaces up closer to Main Street.”
It’ll likely take years before the city can begin redevelopment in earnest, but when it does, Mack is hopeful the area will thrive with city leadership — just like it did so many years ago under private ownership.
Abandoned Michigan hotel to be transformed into affordable housing for veterans
/in UncategorizedReprinted from Michigan Live.
NOTE: These are the types of dreams that CAP can make happen through its property preservation services
SOUTHFIELD, MI – Some local military veterans will soon call a former Michigan hotel their home.
Members of the Tunnel of Towers Foundation, a non-profit which supports first responders, Gold Star families and military veterans, just broke ground on its Detroit Veteran Village in Southfield.
The foundation will renovate the former hotel at 25100 Northwestern Highway into 85 single-occupancy apartments for local veterans.
And this will be more than just a place for these local veterans to live. Tunnel of Towers Veteran Villages will also offer residents on-site support services including job training, benefits assistance, education assistance, medical care access, mental health support + PTSD counseling and addiction treatment.
There are currently Tunnel to Towers Veteran Villages in Houston, Texas; Riverside, California; West Los Angeles, California; and Phoenix, Arizona with construction underway at facilities in Florida, Georgia, New York, Colorado, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.
How to Avoid a Frozen Vacant Property
/in UncategorizedCHALLENGE
Vacant or abandoned retail property can often take a beating during winter. Few or no tenants combined with security and weather conditions leave retailers at risk for disaster. If a property is not properly winterized, property issues such as freeze damage, burst pipes, and flooding can happen. In situations where there is no one working inside of a building and therefore, nobody is available to observe the condition of that property during cold spells, freeze damage can occur unabated and without warning. History has shown that even properties in traditional warmer locales, including the southeastern U.S., can be victim to dangerous cold temperatures subjecting these properties to damage caused by temperatures that drop below 32 F (freeze level).
BEST PRACTICE IMPLEMENTED
Managing a vacant retail property through the cold winter months requires consideration of certain factors:
Partial Winterization: A partial winterization should be performed in cases where a retailer’s store is part of a multi-tenant building with some occupied units. A partial winterization consists of:
Documentation and Signage: Written details along with extensive photographs showing the winterization steps as they are being completed should be used to document the work. In addition, notices should be posted on the front entrance of the store, all water fixtures and in the kitchen/break areas, to indicate that the property has been winterized in order to reduce the risk of the water system being compromised.
Property Checks: Of equal importance to the act of winterizing the vacant store is conducting periodic follow-up inspections after the winterization to check on the condition of the property. Property checks are a prudent and inexpensive business decision. Winterized properties can still incur break-ins, vandalism, copper theft or even the simple use of a faucet or commode by a vagrant or a broker, thereby inviting the risk of a water system breach. Winterization without periodic property checks only provides partial protection against the hazards of cold weather.
RESULTS OF THE BEST PRACTICE
Properly winterizing a building and accompanying the winterization service with periodic property checks virtually eliminates the risk of freeze damage. Proactively taking these property protection actions lowers insurance risk and ensures that a property retains value. Through the performance of a winterization service combined with periodic property checks, retailers can sleep easier at night knowing that their properties in cold weather regions are also resting comfortably all day and night.
VERIFICATION OF EFFICIENCY AND/OR SAVINGS CAPTURED
There are numerous documented instances of freeze damage to properties. Nearly every retail facilities maintenance professional can recall an incident of frozen pipes. Most often freeze damage occurs when a retailer or building owner attempts to save money by choosing not to winterize a property in the hope that the weather never gets cold enough to freeze, or that they can transfer the vacant property to a new owner before freezing temperatures occur. Winter storms cause an average of $1.25 billion in annual losses. The average claim for damage from a frozen pipe is about $18,000. When comparing the average one-time cost of $650 for a retail store winterization and the low cost for an occasional inspection to make sure that the winterization is still intact, clearly it is always best to invest in a professionally managed winterization program. Better to be safe than sorry.
Commercial Asset Preservation is the premier U.S. provider of general maintenance, repair, day porter and inspection services for operating and vacant commercial real estate.