Shopping Malls: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

"Malls struggle for a variety of reasons. Older, smaller malls often seem most vulnerable. They may be situated in suburban areas that have lost their locational value as population growth shifts farther and farther out of cities. They may be architecturally obsolete or inconvenient to major new arteries. And frequently, they don't have the sheer size of today's newer megamalls." A new study, "Greyfields to Goldfields: From Failing Shopping Centers to Great Neighborhoods" Pricewaterhouse-Coopers and the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), places malls in four categories: greyfield, vulnerable, viable, and healthy. The study shows that the acreage and number of stores increases in each of the four classifications. The average number of stores in a greyfield mall is roughly 63 on 46-acre sites, while healthy malls offer nearly 124 stores on 71 acres.

Thanks to Chris Steins