What We Should Do with Abandoned Malls 

Senior citizen apartments... safe for walking/excercise. Places to gather and socialize. Maybe a few restaurants, A hair salon, make it kind of self contained.

i remember watching one episode here on youtube of a show that covered a previous mall that was made into small apartments (the shops inside). what a great idea but don't get rid of commerce. put grocery stores and essential businesses into it such as clothing, medicine, food, and even a weekly flea market if possible

Our hospital bought the Kmart, renovated and brought MRI service to our small community.

OMG so happy to see y’all contributing this conversation on how malls can be something SO much more useful than what they are currently! Makes an urban planner dance!

Just so you know i clicked off this video to go look at footage of the mall you are talking about. In the future having some b-roll might be helpful.

Arizona has put the services for folks in need on the outskirts of town. It’s shameful.

A old residential home was converted into a place for homeless, seemed like a great step forward. Unfortunately it has become a nuisance to the area because the people living there stand around taking drugs, shouting swearing and having parties 🙁

A great conversation. All I can picture is Seph Lawless photos!

Horton Plaza/Mall in San Diego is currently being renoed to be re-used as a tech center with the first floor with some remaining shops. Beautiful architechture, check it out!

Great idea. We have an abandoned, eye sore strip mall up the street, was a Vietnamese restaurant and convinenent store. I would like to add an idea, a learning center a sort of mind and body approach to well being, as well as a transitionall center.

Wow. Thought the photo was the Central Arcade in my home city Newcastle in the UK for a sec. It's also a pretty sad and empty place unfortunately.

USA citizens must just stop driving everywhere and shopping like it is a hobby. Then trashing things, going to landfill. Not to mention the debt of many citizens. USA is vastly behind central Europe on such issues.

OMG! I'm from Australia and just googled the Dayton Arcade...it is amazingly beautiful.

I don't think people understand how expensive it is to convert malls to other uses. Conversion to living space for example it's cheaper to tear down the mall and rebuild. But given that it's even cheaper to build new homes on vacate land because tearing down a mall is expensive. This is why we have abandoned malls. If the land owner could make a buck converting to something else they would. Making a mall a community space...maintenance, utilities hugely expensive. Malls are huge spaces.

I love the idea of a homeless transitioning style housing! And maybe I am being too optimistic but the staff who were previously employed at the mall; can be reemployed there somehow? Trained for community services/ development roles? And or utilising their retail skills in the new space? 🙇‍♀️✨✨✨❤🙏

I think a lot of them could be turned into convention centers that could also have spaces for flea markets, concert halls., exhibits, maybe even a movie theater. That way there are always gatherings happening. These buildings should be spaces for people to have events together.

I have dreamed (literally too) of creating an awesome school in a mall. The classrooms would be where the stores were.

I think it's best to take into account the region and local communities when converting malls.

Is the picture in the thumbnail the Cleveland Arcade? Such a beautiful building, either way.

Would love to see this is dan bell on the show, he has a whole series on dead malls.

For some reason I always see vacant retail/commercial space. I always wonder who owns these properties and why they keep them vacant. There must be some tax advantage. In my city, one particular wealthy investor has acquired so many properties and are maintaining their vacancy so much that recently there is talk of taxing vacant properties. With housing at all time highs and people struggling to afford living space these vacant properties are the solution... how can we solve this issue together.

Seems like Detroit nowadays is teeming with a new resurgence of community organization.

IN ways it cost more to shop at a mall then it does at a store that is same label on its own with other stores not in a mall. i learned that awhile back so i see why malls are fading any cause online shop cost less at times and go to store not in mall is in ways cheaper cause place not as big sometimes so u not gotta help pay for space or workers any. been to variety malls or strip malls so to speak and space can cause places to close if to rent the space is too high at time.

Nice share it

hey guys I just did some research on that Dayton Arcade Mall and found out it closed in 1991. and it was originally built in 1902. So its over 100 years old!!! looked cool btw there was a video of it on youtube.

good ideas for abandoned malls

Entertainment!!!

They could include a coffee shop, food pantry, swap center, walking passes for nonresidents, etc.

A residentual botanical garden

Guys I went to web site saw the awesome Arcade hope fully it wii be finished too beautiful to let go to waste

i went to a very small mall when I was in Carson City, Nevada last year when I was driving thru. and it was almost empty. I only saw a few people in the entire mall. that mall was dead and would be perfect to get repurposed.

Shuttered malls may not be THE answer to the homeless crisis, but turning them into low-cost apartments would make a big dent in said crisis.

Did you just say that a 1/4 of the world's population live in California? That would be about 2 billion people. (In 2023) California's population is around 39 million at this time.

Something really beautiful about that huh….

The same should be done with abandoned schools

Carbon dioxide is plant food....not pollution..

big ass retirement centers /college space

With all the baby boomers aging....senior citizen affordable housing . Have shops in there that cater to that age group.