4 ms·

That was touched on in the article and in the report linked in another comment. Basically the bet is as follows: 1) I lower the rent $X and lease to someone no

That was touched on in the article and in the report linked in another comment. Basically the bet is as follows: 1) I lower the rent $X and lease to someone now. This has a life time value of lease months * X 2) I leave it vacant, and lease to someone later for a premium rent $Y which has a lifetime value of $0 * vacant_months + $Y * lease_months. The bet is that #2 is more money. What the landlord fears is that because leases are hard to break, #1 will leave them "stuck" for 'n' years at the lower rent. In the Bay area during lots of competition for space, one could finesse this, if you were able to move easily, by leasing just "month to month".

Terr_ 3y ago
> if you were able to move easily I find myself imagining a cyberpunk future: The local Megabuilding is ringed with empty sockets along its ground-floor, bays of various standardized sizes and utility-connections, each waiting for tenants--with their treaded "stores"--to drive along, buy a few weeks, and carefully back in before unfurling their colorful interface to the wallets of the public.
- ChuckMcM 3y ago
  They have some interesting "pop up" stalls in downtown Atlanta. I have heard that the 'container village' in Las Vegas was kind of thinking of that too, based on a standard container, you just dropped it down and then moved it when needed.
  - vel0city 3y ago
    Its always interesting seeing the somewhat regular pop-up markets with crowds in the parking lots of 2/3 vacant strip malls.
- wiml 3y ago
  I already see that happening, except without the Megabuilding. For example, I see lots of semi-permanent food trucks — they park in the same spot every day, running off of bottled propane and a noisy little generator hanging off the hitch, doing brisk business in a busy pedestrian-heavy neighborhood with lots of empty storefronts. This can go on for literally years. On occasion the food truck will become so permanent that it's up on blocks in a parking lot, has a permanent eating area built next to it, maybe even has a cord running into a neighboring business. But that neighboring business is invariably a small business in an old, single-story building. I don't know the cause of this obvious inefficiency. I assume it's that commercial real estate companies don't want to waste their time with small tenants. They figure it's more profitable to leave a large space open for ten years in hopes of getting a bank branch or chain restaurant, rather than rent each 25-foot section out to a separate tenant with higher turnover. Maybe they're right. Nobody gets rich running fleamarkets.

Terr_ 3y ago

> if you were able to move easily I find myself imagining a cyberpunk future: The local Megabuilding is ringed with empty sockets along its ground-floor, bays of various standardized sizes and utility-connections, each waiting for tenants--with their treaded "stores"--to drive along, buy a few weeks, and carefully back in before unfurling their colorful interface to the wallets of the public.

ChuckMcM 3y ago
They have some interesting "pop up" stalls in downtown Atlanta. I have heard that the 'container village' in Las Vegas was kind of thinking of that too, based on a standard container, you just dropped it down and then moved it when needed.
- vel0city 3y ago
  Its always interesting seeing the somewhat regular pop-up markets with crowds in the parking lots of 2/3 vacant strip malls.
wiml 3y ago
I already see that happening, except without the Megabuilding. For example, I see lots of semi-permanent food trucks — they park in the same spot every day, running off of bottled propane and a noisy little generator hanging off the hitch, doing brisk business in a busy pedestrian-heavy neighborhood with lots of empty storefronts. This can go on for literally years. On occasion the food truck will become so permanent that it's up on blocks in a parking lot, has a permanent eating area built next to it, maybe even has a cord running into a neighboring business. But that neighboring business is invariably a small business in an old, single-story building. I don't know the cause of this obvious inefficiency. I assume it's that commercial real estate companies don't want to waste their time with small tenants. They figure it's more profitable to leave a large space open for ten years in hopes of getting a bank branch or chain restaurant, rather than rent each 25-foot section out to a separate tenant with higher turnover. Maybe they're right. Nobody gets rich running fleamarkets.