What Do You Do With All Those Empty Big Box Stores?
There's a lot of big stores going out of business, and/or moving, so what do you do with the building?
If you haven't heard, Best Buy is moving to the West End Shopping Center. Hey, I get it, West End is a really cool shopping center. What of the building though? What about that building that was a Rooms To Go at the Loop and 50th?
I guess all of this is on the landlords and property developers. It's just a shame to see these spaces left as remnants of a pre-Amazon/online shopping world. Taking it to another level, what happens if the Mall loses a few of it's larger stores?
I'm guessing we're going to see a new era of teardown/rebuilds. There seems to a need for smaller specialty stores but those big stores where you could get everything are being replaced by big websites where you can get everything.
I don't know if I have any answers, but I know who to blame. This kind of thing is squarely on the back of city planners. Incentives could easily put in place to encourage business inside the Loop. It's crazy to think, but if something isn't done, there are big portions of Lubbock that could become a ghost town. I do realize that the landlords of these properties bear some responsibility for using these spaces, but there should be a clear vision for how Lubbock should grow and apparently there isn't one.