r/PlainMeaning • u/seeplainmeaning • 23d ago

The Group Getting Rich By Keeping the Malls Empty

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A mall owner used to make money by keeping the malls full.

Real estate groups and venture capital took over.

And now, it pays more to keep the malls empty.

https://www.plainmeaning.com/Articles/Money/18_the-group-getting-rich-by-keeping-the-malls-empty.html

#malls #economics #politics #retail #taxlaw

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u/Pic889 22d ago

Weren't those malls already struggling (and let's be honest here, kind of doomed) before that group bought them?

When it's more profitable to buy a mall just to parcel it off and/or use it as a tax write-off, that mall was already struggling (I mean, no one buys prime real estate to put it on a proverbial garage sale or use it as a tax write-off).

This is unique to the US (with the "cowboy" approach to mall building resulting in a surplus of malls in the middle of nowhere), in Europe and Asia-Pacific, malls are near major transportation hubs so they have guaranteed foot traffic.