Shopping malls are running on empty

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Life Plaza Center in San Gabriel used to teem with diners heading to Green Village, a Chinese restaurant in the middle of the horseshoe-shaped mall on Valley Boulevard.

But after the eatery closed five months ago, the 7,500- square-foot space remained vacant. With no tenants stepping forward and fewer customers clogging the parking lot, the plaza is quiet, with a curiously dark core.

It's a scene repeated in various forms throughout the region, as the economic crash that started rolling through single-family housing more than a year ago begins to hit shopping centers, turning what had been a residential phenomenon into one that threatens commercial real estate as well.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--

4 Comments
Posted November 25, 2008 at 5:03 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Cennydd wrote:

On the other hand, this isn’t the case in every town…..especially here in our town.  Sure, there are a few empty stores…..and I say a FEW, but people are still shopping at our big box outlets, and there is new construction going on in our shopping mall.  Eventually, there will be a turnaround, and we’re getting ready for it.  I’d say we’re cautiously optimistic.

November 25, 11:21 am | [comment link]
2. libraryjim wrote:

Cennydd,
On yet the other hand, very few stores are hiring additional help for the holiday season.  I went to just about every store in BOTH malls in town, and most said:

“Well, you can fill out the application (note: most were online applications), but we weren’t given the extra hours for hiring additional help this year.” 

Even with the students going home, they still feel they will have adequate employees with current staff.

November 25, 3:17 pm | [comment link]
3. Adam 12 wrote:

I still see lots of people in the stores and restaurants. Maybe this is a New York and California problem…

November 25, 3:30 pm | [comment link]
4. Sick & Tired of Nuance wrote:

It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. ...

November 25, 10:41 pm | [comment link]
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