That’s the question asked by the New York Times, which posits that as many as one in four malls in the U.S. could close entirely as the department store anchor-tenant model teeters.
According to industry researcher Deborah Weinswig, the article says, “the malls that are able to withstand the current turmoil will be healthier — better tenants, more inviting and occupied — but … about 25 percent of the country’s nearly 1,200 malls” could close entirely.
Real estate experts see opportunity in the closing and not just dread: malls can be reinvented, as housing, offices, local markets and other concepts. But they may not be the shopping centers that defined late-twentieth-century American culture.