This actually happened with a shopping mall in Dallas. Valley View Mall effectively died a few years ago. It got bought by a new owner who's been trying to get

This actually happened with a shopping mall in Dallas. Valley View Mall effectively died a few years ago. It got bought by a new owner who's been trying to get permission to demolish it and build something new in its place. While waiting, he decided to get creative with the mall's contents instead of leaving it dead. So he converted a good chunk of the mall (I think they used one of the anchors) into a big open Latin American-style market called "El Mercado". It's really cool looking, and the owner is definitely taking advantage of the fact that the surrounding neighborhoods are predominantly Latino. Another use was converting a good chunk of the empty stores into art galleries, which he leased to local artists for cheap in exchange for their participation in a monthly event called the Midtown Art Walk. And then he converted more stores into a boxing gym and an indoor soccer field. All of this is specifically to build a sense of community in the area that will carry over to the new development when he finally gets to bulldoze the mall and build his "Dallas Midtown" project (and the city finally authorized the demolition this month, so it should be soon), so it should launch with a well-established community. Here's an article about the creation of El Mercado: http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2012/07/as-valley-views-new-owners-get-settled-in-a-new-look-emerges-from-the-mega-mercado-to-food-truck-test-kitchens.html/ http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2012/07/as-valley-views-n... And another article about the current state of the mall: http://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/is-valley-view-mall-dead-7987962 http://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/is-valley-view-mall-dead-...