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But there are no parking lots to remove in these first-floor retail spaces so you cannot increase density. The outdoor shopping malls, on the other hand, with e

But there are no parking lots to remove in these first-floor retail spaces so you cannot increase density. The outdoor shopping malls, on the other hand, with enormous parking lots and no housing nearby somehow manage to get a lot of custom. It could be that the idea that a retail without parking is set to thrive is just wrong?

bobthepanda 3y ago
Malls in the US are suffering from a retail apocalypse as well. Really the root issue is that there is too much retail square footage in the US. Retail sq ft per person is 23 sq ft, compared to 2-5 in Europe and Japan. In that context building new retail is a fool’s errand. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058852/retail-space-per-capita-selected-countries-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058852/retail-space-per...
- pandaman 3y ago
  Malls - yes, outdoor malls - no.
userinanother 3y ago
Those spaces are wacky. There isn’t enough density to support wages of a person working there and not enough parking to pull in outside customers. They would make good personal studios for the locals but the landlords want too much or too onerous of a lease agreement.
- pandaman 3y ago
  Not sure about even studios - if this had been viable somebody could have made profit by taking over a commercial lease and sub-leasing the space to individuals under more suitable terms (a lot of of rental apartments seems to be ran this way already, the entity that leases them is often not the actual owner of the building). My theory is that they build the first floor facing the street as "retail" because they don't think an apartment in such a location will be profitable (much less so a condo) as it's going to be a very hard sell for the prospective tenants/owners. It's much cheaper than residential space and if somebody leases it - you get some profit but if not, you are not losing much.
  - userinanother 3y ago
    Leasing under the projected rate will trigger automatic loan reassessments. Leaving the unit vacant won’t

bobthepanda 3y ago

Malls in the US are suffering from a retail apocalypse as well. Really the root issue is that there is too much retail square footage in the US. Retail sq ft per person is 23 sq ft, compared to 2-5 in Europe and Japan. In that context building new retail is a fool’s errand. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058852/retail-space-per-capita-selected-countries-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058852/retail-space-per...

pandaman 3y ago
Malls - yes, outdoor malls - no.

userinanother 3y ago

Those spaces are wacky. There isn’t enough density to support wages of a person working there and not enough parking to pull in outside customers. They would make good personal studios for the locals but the landlords want too much or too onerous of a lease agreement.

pandaman 3y ago
Not sure about even studios - if this had been viable somebody could have made profit by taking over a commercial lease and sub-leasing the space to individuals under more suitable terms (a lot of of rental apartments seems to be ran this way already, the entity that leases them is often not the actual owner of the building). My theory is that they build the first floor facing the street as "retail" because they don't think an apartment in such a location will be profitable (much less so a condo) as it's going to be a very hard sell for the prospective tenants/owners. It's much cheaper than residential space and if somebody leases it - you get some profit but if not, you are not losing much.
- userinanother 3y ago
  Leasing under the projected rate will trigger automatic loan reassessments. Leaving the unit vacant won’t