Malls Fill Vacant Stores With Server Rooms: Empty Department Stores Converted Into Data Centers

The Wall Street Journal ^ | November 3, 2014 | Drew Fitzgerald and Paul Ziobro

[2ndDivisionVet]

The Internet is moving to a shopping center near you.

In Fort Wayne, Ind., a vacated Target store is about to be home to rows of computer servers, network routers and Ethernet cables courtesy of a local data-center operator. In Jackson, Miss., a former McRae’s department store will get the same treatment next year. And one quadrant of the Marley Station Mall south of Baltimore is already occupied by a data-center company that last year offered to buy out the rest of the building.

As America’s retailers struggle to keep up with online shopping, the Internet is starting to settle into some of the very spaces where brick-and-mortar customers used to shop. The shift brings welcome tenants to some abandoned stretches of the suburban landscape, though it doesn’t replace all the jobs and sales-tax revenue that local communities lost when stores left the building.

Venyu Solutions LLC, a data-center operator that is renovating the former department store in Jackson, sees more opportunity for conversion because of sheer amount of distressed retail properties. “Who else wants them?” said Brian Vandegrift, the company’s executive vice president of sales. “You’re not competing with people in substantial businesses who want those spaces.”(continued)

[Perdogg]

Watch what happens when power infrastructure for retail space meets power infrastructure for data centers.

[FreedomPoster]

Data paths too. Not many retail location have lots of redundancy of connectivity, both in the building and the local area. One Bubba with a backhoe, and you could be toast.

[montag813]

Many malls and neighborhood shopping centers are still grappling with vacancies five years after the recession. The average mall vacancy rate hovers around 5.8%, according to market researcher CoStar Group, the same level as in the third quarter of 2009. Strip-mall vacancy sits at 10.1%, down from 11.5% five years ago. Rents are down too. Asking rents at malls have fallen 16% over the past five years, while strip mall rents declined 12%, according to CoStar.

And they'll never come back to "normal" rates. In case these mall landlords didn't get the memo, people actually shop online now.

[GraceG]

This is what happens when the economy is goign down the tubes, i see so many strip malls in my area that are half working stores, half space for rent...

The space for rent business is booming...

[bigbob]

Interesting re-use of space. I suspect those data center operators are at least as smart as the average FReeper when it comes to figuring out how to mitigate against loss of power and/or connectivity. At around $15-20K per mile you can trench or bore a lot of fiber cheaper than you can build brick and mortar, and microtrenching can reduce that even more.

[NonValueAdded]

Back in the day, any vacant big box store turned into a manufacturing center for DEC, almost overnight.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Come on out to the rock we have in the Missouri Ozarks...

[uglybiker]

This mall has everything!

[umgud]

I thought these things were supposzed to be somewhere up in a cloud.

[Ezekiel]

Malls Fill Vacant Stores With Server Rooms: Empty Department Stores Converted Into Data Centers

"Lots of space in this mall."

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Stick them in shopping centers with real stores and traffic, then use all the waste heat for space conditioning...at least in Minnesota in the winter.

[cynwoody]

In Fort Wayne, Ind., a vacated Target store is about to be home to rows of computer servers, network routers and Ethernet cables courtesy of a local data-center operator.

Target just opened a new store in Wilmington, MA, only 5.9 miles driving distance from an existing store in Woburn.

[Secret Agent Man]

i would think its obvious the mall owners will be updating the electrical service for these server farms. the data center themselves will be responsible for connectivity needs, because they will know what they want and need.

[RegulatorCountry]

Retail isn’t as dead across the board as it might appear from vacant enclosed shopping malls and run of the mill shopping strips. The uncomfortable fact that no one seems to want to talk about is gang behavior killing enclosed malls, and fear of robbery killing older shopping strips. The “town center” style of retail construction appears to be booming everywhere I’ve been in the past several years. Buildings with character and personality, storefront parking, mixed use with offices and even residential lofts in addition to retail, all well-lit and well patrolled. No giant football fields of pavement to traverse.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Especially here in the suburbs of Dallas/Ft Worth. It amazes us every time we drive into a new area.

[logi_cal869]

The irony here is astounding...

[SunkenCiv]

The site has to be on a trunk link though.

[RegulatorCountry]

I disliked them at first, it felt sort of Disneyfied, like Potemkin small town downtowns scattered around. But, as they’ve filled and come to be destinations I’ve come to appreciate them over other types of retail construction. The only thing better is a great, restored downtown area but those are seldom ideal as far as convenience, parking, etc. and often on the fringe of high crime.

[Moonman62]

Around here, larger store get converted into charter schools or technical colleges. A few smaller stores get converted to churches.