Comment of the Day Runner-Up: From the Soil of a Dead Mall, Let a Bunch of Apartment Towers Bloom

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: FROM THE SOIL OF A DEAD MALL, LET A BUNCH OF APARTMENT TOWERS BLOOM “Malls that are about to die need to utilize their best asset and that is having large AC filled connector hallways that can hold pretty much any small business such as coffee shops/barber shops/pet supplies/retail obviously. Using the large department store areas like Macy’s/Sears/Dillards/Palais Royal, investors could make 6-8 story apartment/condo towers. Plenty of parking lot space around in case the apartment towers needs to be built wider than what the old department stores have to offer in space. The location at I-45 & North Beltway is great and parking lots will have exits to both feeders. Residents would be able to enjoy not just living in a nice condo lifestyle but also have AC filled hallways with all kinds of small businesses, I could see baby boomers loving this since many of them are early morning mall walkers anyway. It would be a long process, especially getting 4 different towers completed; but since they are all at different corners of the mall, residents will not have the construction headaches that you might assume would come along with it. I think its a better idea than just tearing old malls down.” [mas, commenting on The End of the Greenspoint Mall Is Upon Us] Photo of Greenspoint Mall: Colliers International

3 Comment

  • Building residential towers requires that the achievable rents will be high enough to financially justify the construction costs of something that vertical. That condition won’t happen in Greenspoint anytime soon.

  • This would help deviate the naming conventions of said developments away from quaint English/European regions and become truly American concepts. Pre-leasing The Dillard, The Macy, Sears Green….. Or provide a shift in the millennial demographic apartment scene by offering air conditioned indoor dog parks at places like Twenty Two Twenty JC Penny, The Bealls at Gunpoint, or Little Lofts at Big Lots.

  • The office buildings are the only thing keeping those businesses around there alive. Some of the restaurants close at 5 or 6 since most of their business is the lunch crowd from the offices.