Scary Number of Vacancies

[tfresca]

Retail vacancy and office vacancy aren't' the same thing. I think the parking situation downtown will hurt businesses too, couple that with high rent.

[buffettjr]

I knew CptRon would be in here to lay the smack down. The last thing Austin has is a vacancy problem!

3 of the 4 stores you mentioned aren't closing because of a rough economy in my view, they're closing because technology is damaging their business model. There are 100 different options for streaming movies into your home that don't involve Blockbuster. Bookstores are hurting not because of the economy but because of competition from movies, internet, 500 TV channels, and electronic books. And as for Best Buy, it is much cheaper to buy electronic items online, and the nerdy/techy crowd is more likely to do that.

[Seoid]

I noticed that the former Blockbuster locations I drove by this weekend were all filled with something else.

[atxcio]

Opps... posted this in the wrong thread originally, but with regard to scary vacancies: Strip mall retail has an ugly cycle anyway, regardless of the economy. Basically what it looks like (to me) is this:

1) Big intersection gets a brand new strip mall on one corner, big fancy anchor store opens and rents are high. Ownership is by a higher end retail real estate group. 3 other corners of the intersection are empty fields.

2) A few years later (or sooner), new strip mall gets built across the street on another corner. New big, fancy anchor tenants move in and rents begin to drop in older shopping center. Older shopping center changes hands.

3) Another corner at the intersection gets a strip mall; final corner probably a gas station or walgreens. Anchor tenant in the original strip mall moves to newer strip mall, or a different location, or just closes. Original strip mall is long since paid for, changes hands again, rents plummet. At this point it's unlikely any top tier retail anchor will touch the place.

4) Original shopping center tenants are eventually replaced with lower end stores. Large anchor tenant location becomes *maybe* a Big Lots or something, but could also become a Salvation Army/Thrift Store/Half price books, or perhaps even a low-cost office location or church. Vacancy is high, income is low, building is 15-20 years old by now, but the land is still valuable and the street access and zoning are potentially desirable. Ownership probably changes again, new investor is just holding the property to make a little money and wait for redevelopment someday. If the maintenance costs on the property are too high, they may even just tear it down and make it a field again while they wait to sell it to someone else. #4 can go on for many, many years.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by tfresca

Retail vacancy and office vacancy aren't' the same thing. I think the parking situation downtown will hurt businesses too, couple that with high rent.

Good point on retail versus office vacancies. I assumed that commercial was all lumped together, but that may be a bad assumption on my part.

I don't think the parking situation downtown is all that bad. There is actually more parking available now then there has been in the past, but very little of it is free. I doubt that hurts businesses much since there is now much more foot traffic on all of the streets, more people downtown equals more business in my mind.

[BentBow]

With Valentine's soon approaching, support your local florist, not 1-800 Flowers or any of the other order takers, that then call your local florist that you could have called, and they keep a little of your money for making the call you should have. You don't get what you pay for, after they keep their cut.

Same with on-line order takers. Go to the local florist webpage direct, if you are on-line.
If the web address isn't their name direct, chances are they are FTD or Teleflora, and they keep a cut.
Watchout for redirects.

Get the most out of your florist - Go direct!