On Thu, 05 Jan 2017 23:33:07 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 05 Jan 2017 21:21:28 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 5 Jan 2017 20:58:23 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 1/5/2017 8:25 PM, wrote:

What value? Liability for rent I can see but the era of the mall is over.


I did say "I don't think malls are the gathering place they used to be." To me that means exactly the same thing as "the era of the mall is over." The value, or maybe old value, of Sears is its real estate value. I am aware malls are not really the shopping centers they used to be. But all that real estate in every state in retail locations has value. Despite the prevalence of online shopping, the way I do a lot of shopping too, actual real estate space is still needed and valuable. There is still far more in person retail space shopping than all online shopping combined. Believe it or not. Add up all the grocery store, gas station, hardware store, Wal-Mart shopping I do in a year, and it is a lot more than all online shopping I do. Suspect that is identical for everyone else. Everyone talks about online shopping, but it will never ever replace in person shopping.


I don't know how much real estate Sears owns, but mall space is usually
leased. They may have more liability to the end of the lease that what
the space is worth.

I agree that retail will never disappear, but look around at how much
empty space is available. how many malls have empty spots? I know of
three stip malls built about 8 or 9 years ago. One is 100% empty, the
other two are 75% empty.

Around here, the more "modern" strip malls seem to be doing fine. The
ones that have been let go, well, their anchor is a Good Will. A few
malls were completely rebuilt three or four years ago. They're doing
fine, too. There aren't any indoor malls in the immediate area. I
think the closest is about 25mi (the opposite direction of our normal
shopping).
Up here the big malls are doing relatively well. Our local
"regional" mall has anchore space empty due to the collape od Target's
Canadian opperations. The big one across town is pretty well full -
but the Sears store is flounderinf with Walmart at the other end of
the mall. The Bay is doing well in both malls. These are indoor "all
weather" malls and will be linked by the new "rapid transit" rail
system "ION" which is under construction and delayed by Bombardier's
rail-car devision.

I think the difference between the success of strip vs. indoor
megamalls is weather. You have too much of it. ;-) The preferred
mall, here, resembles a downtown of fifty years ago. The stores line
the center, divided street (usually cobble stone) with on-street
parking. These all seem to have 100% occupancy. They tend to be
upscale stores.