As The Elk Grove Promenade Sits Half-Finished, Phoenix Suburbs Congure Ideas To Fill Languishing Malls

Scared official contemplate year-round Halloween stores or churches to fill the void


If General Growth Properties (GGP) had completed the ill-fated Elk Grove Promenade as scheduled, the strip center on steroids might be facing the problems being encountered by shopping centers in suburban Phoenix - high vacancy rates and collapsing rents.

Phoenix, another boom area hard-hit by the residential foreclosure crisis and credit crunch is facing the next falling domino - a collapse in commercial real estate. The Arizona Republic reports that elected officials and mall developers in Phoenix suburbs have been brainstorming how to fill vacancies in shopping centers.

"(Lease) prices are coming down. . . . We're getting a lot of callbacks from big landlords that before wanted nothing to do with a dollar store. In the last six months or so, they've really started coming on to us," said Ted Flood, real-estate manager for Dollar Tree.

Other talked-about examples include a year-round Halloween store inside a shuttered Circuit City, or a cowboy-boots retailer in place of a defunct Shoe Pavilion. Schools and churches also could fill vacancies.

As for GGP's Elk Grove Promenade, many ideas in online discussions have been floated on what to do with it. They range from converting it into cradle-to-grave medical facility to tearing down the structure.

Regardless of the fate that ultimately befalls the Promenade, this much is certain - rising retail vacancies pose a real threat to the financial stability and public safety of Elk Grove. The city should explore the idea of a three to four year moratorium on further commercial development.

Failure to tighten the supply of commercial real estate could result in abandoned and derelict buildings all over town. This could start an irreversible downward spiral.

This is a far scarier prospect than a year round Halloween store.