Why don't they use an existing building?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
They want them made to order.Set up their own way,so the stores are all similar and familiar to the customer.


This mainly. Big retailers have a brand that they've built and invested a bunch in and want consistency. And they don't want to forever be known as "the old K-mart store".

Edit: beat me to the draw Donald.
 
Last edited:
The old K-Mart in Waco became a Tractor Supply on one end, a Gold's Gym on the other end, and a sporting goods in the middle.

Originally Posted By: Dyusik

I want to move to the woods, some 50 miles away from a small town so that I can have [hopefully] 10 years of not being surrounded by 6,000 neighbors per acre.


I'm pretty close to that ideal.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
The big box stores are very cheap to build.

And what store wants to be known as "located in the old Kmart building"
what's considered cheap? Buying 10 acres of prime land then spending millions on permits,water tests,dirt tests,and finally building the place vs moving into an existing place?
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Rural King uses existing infrastructure when they open new locations.
Their favorites are old Wal-Mart and old K-Mart buildings.... they're not too picky.


Atwood's Farm and Ranch in Waco moved into the old Winn Dixie
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
And what store wants to be known as "located in the old Kmart building"


lol.gif
Defenately not Walmart
 
I hear you. I've seen retail outfits tear down a 3yr old retail building and build a new one in the EXACT same spot!

Like said, I think it's the nature of this type of building. It's just easier to start from scratch in terms of getting the funding and potentially saving some money.
 
Originally Posted By: Warstud
Originally Posted By: Donald
And what store wants to be known as "located in the old Kmart building"


lol.gif
Defenately not Walmart


Actually, our 2nd Walmart is in a building that was originally K-Mart IIRC, and then Zellers.

Our 1st Walmart was in a former Woolworths location. They eventually built a whole new structure further down the street and that mall is now having a hard time keeping tenants.

I've seen a lot of buildings recycled around these parts actually:

1. Downtown, the former Eatons department store is now a seniors facility.
2. Downtown, the former Zellers is now a medical building.
3. Downtown, the former Canadian Tire is a grocery store (No Frills)

Unfortunately, there don't appear to always be happy endings for these structures. The former Woolco (I think that's what it was) building downtown is STILL vacant, and that's been decades. The mall that used to house Eatons is a ghost town with a tiny fraction of the outlets in it, most of them are boarded up. They have like two staple tenants. As I mentioned earlier, the mall that used to have Walmart in it is now relegated to having a couple of externally accessible large tenants with very few of the small shops inside left.

Our Sears just closed due to the bankruptcy, and it is a massive structure attached to a mall. The mall is thriving, but it will be interesting to see what happens to the former Sears space.
 
It's actually ideal for local businesses to be in "the old Kmart building" or the like. Locals know exactly where you are.

The old Walmart store(pre supercenter) was torn down, and in its place they erected a Walgreens, then several years later a buffalo wild wings. They could have put both in the building they tore down, plus probably two more businesses.
 
Originally Posted By: Red91
It's actually ideal for local businesses to be in "the old Kmart building" or the like. Locals know exactly where you are.

The old Walmart store(pre supercenter) was torn down, and in its place they erected a Walgreens, then several years later a buffalo wild wings. They could have put both in the building they tore down, plus probably two more businesses.


Lots of reason why that probably made sense. You still have to pay taxes on an empty building. Taxes on just plain land is cheaper. Then if you have empty space, it probably still needs to be heated, cooled and maintained. They probably came up with a number where it was cheaper to tear it down than to keep it up and keep it maintained.
 
Originally Posted By: Warstud
Originally Posted By: Donald
And what store wants to be known as "located in the old Kmart building"


lol.gif
Defenately not Walmart


The Walmart closest to me is in what was a Kmart, and that's how most people who have been in the area for awhile refer to it. They would have been smart to to redesign or rebuild the building, as it's poorly laid out as is.
 
If you have a 70's or older commercial bdlg there may be hazard waste issues . Asbestos and lead. Prime commercial space is found near freeway exits or train stations. All the lower end stores are on the state routes. closer to the old center of town. Often 1/2 the stores are empty and the pking lot has clumps of weeds in it. Suburban sprawl. Market Basket builds them to a plan off a highway exit around here. They give me the warm and fuzzies because the people are well behaved. The older stores are neighborhood anchors. MB's CEO is invested in the people who frequent his stores. Other supermkts are more exploitive. Do you have an Aldi's yet?
 
If you want to renovate, invariably the current building codes have to be complied with. This can be difficult to impossible ( read: expensive at best ) with an old structure. My experience is that bureaucrats can also put a thumb on the scales to make it unreasonably expensive and time consuming to renovate. Unless you have your own money, some part of it has to be financed. That can come with its own problems, not the least of which is that no one may be interested in doing it.

If you want to tear something down, that is also very expensive, particularly if the structure contains regulated materials. Concrete foundations are really expensive to remove. All of this can be worth it, if it is a really good piece of dirt.

Most big companies would rather lease a brand new place than an old place.

Most places have more land than people, so it's just cheaper and easier to buy a new lot and have someone build something new, while the older buildings languish.
 
Originally Posted By: andyd
If you have a 70's or older commercial bdlg there may be hazard waste issues . Asbestos and lead.


That's actually the case with the new Autozone being built in my town (why they would put one in a town of less than 1500 people us beyond me...). The old building was going to be remodeled and a pizza place was going in there, but they ran into those issues and ran outta money. Autozone had enough capital to bulldoze the whole lot.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Rural King uses existing infrastructure when they open new locations.
Their favorites are old Wal-Mart and old K-Mart buildings.... they're not too picky.


Atwood's Farm and Ranch in Waco moved into the old Winn Dixie


Atwood's is one of the few that I know of that will take an old commercial building. I'm not sure I've ever seen one in a new building. They are an exception to the rule.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL


I've seen a lot of buildings recycled around these parts actually:

1. Downtown, the former Eatons department store is now a seniors facility.
2. Downtown, the former Zellers is now a medical building.
3. Downtown, the former Canadian Tire is a grocery store (No Frills)


Much more common for an empty big brand building to get re-purposed into various other uses than one brand moving into another's building.

Tractor Supply tore down a fairly new regional brand home supply building and built their own. Walmart had a store, built a super store beside it, Home Depot bought the old WM, tore it down and built their own. Goodwill went into the old Kmart.
 
A guy giving me a seismic retrofit quote a few weeks ago said today's business buildings are built with a 20 year lifetime expectancy.
 
All the Wal-Marts left for new buildings, super centers around here. The old "Sam Walton" buildings
converted into:
ATV and Motorcycle dealer
Orscheln Farm and Home
Buchheit (farm store)
Elastec (oil spill response systems, made $$ from BP blowout)
Sears store later closed and converted to a Hobby Lobby.
Walmart SuperCenter added on as addition to original building.
Rural King (corporate store)

The old Kmart buildings around have converted to:
Lumber and Home center, independant.
Vacant
Vacant
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top