The Borders thing is a pattern that happens all over the country; pop-up Halloween costume stores love old Borders locations, and other abandoned retail spaces.

The Borders thing is a pattern that happens all over the country; pop-up Halloween costume stores love old Borders locations, and other abandoned retail spaces. I suspect it's a combination of factors that leads to this: * Retail was heavily overbuilt leading up to the 2008 market crash, so even a decade later there's oversupply of retail real estate compared to demand for it * The economics of brick-and-mortar retail haven't gotten much better, which further depresses demand * There are probably uses for those properties as tools for tax arbitrage which are best served by keeping them empty (and in California, the fear of Proposition 13 reassessment being triggered by redeveloping the property) So leaving it empty most of the year, with the seasonal rental, may be the best option for the owner of the property.