Retail space opens up as big chains shrink

LA Times ^ | 12/2/09 | Roger Vincent

[FromLori]

Surges of large-scale retail bankruptcies such as Circuit City electronics and Mervyns department stores altered the shopping landscape in 2009 -- and experts say 2010 is likely to bring even more changes.

Amid a still-tepid economic recovery, big retail chains are expected to continue closing their less productive stores and retrenching on expansion plans. But at the same time, others will be hurtling into the breach to take advantage of falling rents and vacancies in neighborhoods they couldn't get into a few years ago.

"The prediction for next year is more re-sizing and relocating of retailers," said real estate broker Richard Rizika of CB Richard Ellis.

There are almost 100 empty big-box retail stores in Los Angeles County, according to a study by Rizika. They have a combined total of 4.5 million square feet, or about 78 football fields' worth of vacant space for rent or sale. Most of that came from liquidated businesses

[truth_seeker]

“Kohl’s moved into a lot of the closed Mervyn’s around here.”

Ditto.

And the Comp USA store got a strong replacement company, British grocer Tesco.

On the major blvd. here, the VW, Toyota and Honda dealerships have expanded.

The Chevy dealer is old, not upgraded. The Pontiac, GMC, Cadillac dealer is closed.

Many independent (pre-owned) auto dealers are gone, in the last few months.

[reformed_dem]

We both appear to be in the O.C. :)

[CaliforniaCon]

Here in Peoples’ Republic of Los Angeles, lots more stores going under — latest: A big Pottery Barn in Topanga Plaza, a very large and recently revamped mall in the West Valley.

One good change that took place (before the ‘crisis’) was the demise of Good Guys electronics (though I liked them) and ultimate placement on same site of a huge Petsmart store, complete with beautiful ‘pet hotel.’ My dog loves that!

[Old Professer]

More good news...