From Dead Mall To Amazon Warehouse: Here’s How Shuttered Retail Stores Are Getting A New Life

An old Toys R Us store in Milwaukee is now home to Engine & Transmission Exchange, a remanufacturer for car parts. Meanwhile, six dead malls across the U.S. are either in the process of being turned into or have been revamped as massive manufacturing plants and logistics hubs. The empty Euclid Square Mall in Euclid, Ohio, for example, is under construction to become home to a new Amazon e-commerce fulfillment center. And that’s after Amazon already moved into a new facility where Randall Park Mall used to sit in North Randall, Ohio. These types of projects — converting a shuttered retail space into industrial complexes — have historically been hard to do, and are still somewhat rare to see through from start to finish, David Egan, head of the industrial and logistics research division at commercial real estate services provider CBRE, told CNBC. “That said, I think we will see more of it. [The trend] will grow slowly, but it will grow.” Read more at CNBC.