www.insideedition.com
maybe they can convert the unoccupied commercial space to satisfy the pickleball craze.
Pickleball Courts Breathe New Life Into Dying Shopping Malls
Pickleball, the most popular sport around, promises new life to the nation's empty shopping malls.
This has long been my contention. If the floor plate doesn't work for housing, because the interior is too large, then only build housing around the exterior, and use the interior for non-housing purposes. Recreational, light manufacturing, data centers, hydroponic agriculture, there is no end to uses that could inhabit the cores of these buildings. Time to stop trying to figure out how to fill the entire floor with residential, and move out of that box in to some more creative ideas.
Honestly, opinions on the pickleball craze aside, this general point is a great one whether you meant it seriously or not. It is ridiculous to allow ourselves to believe that no one wants to use these old commercial spaces. It is, rather, that no one wants to pay top dollar for these old spaces for conventional office work. Recreational spaces, performance spaces, artist studios, maker spaces, commercial space for more physically-intensive fields/industries, dance/music/performance practice spaces, and so forth, would be incredibly popular in a lot of these places. I know, I know, a chorus of people are going to reply that none of that is economically viable. But that's where good policy can come in: rather than trying to mess with companies' office use plans, the city would be better served directing economic development funding and tax breaks toward these causes - and, let's face it, the rents and property values of these places will eventually decline if they are underutilized anyway. Even the city of Nashua, NH bought up some old commercial properties downtown and redeveloped them into a new theater and performing arts space with a mix of public funding and private donations (yes, there was a funding drive: $21m from city, $4m donations). I bet some of Boston's corporate behemoths who are economically healthy yet using less office space would nonetheless be willing to chip in to a "downtown vitality fund".
^Photo credit @Smuttynose ; thread here
More to CityDweller's point: you've got MIT putting a Ping Pong space into a commercial building in Kendall (slide 7 here).
Is all of this going to be hard and painful and expensive, yes, but if the choice is lots of deteriorating vacant buildings vs. doing something hard, I think the latter is the right choice. Mayor Wu, tell me where to send the donation check (not kidding).
I really doubt that you can come up with mixed floor arrangements with non-housing uses that make the housing very attractive. Issue like noise, security and access are pretty high on people's list for housing. You might, though, be able to get creative with housing related amenities to fill out the core.
I think we have to get beyond current notions of what makes housing attractive. I suspect that affordable is attractive, for example.
It's temporary.
Honestly, opinions on the pickleball craze aside, this general point is a great one whether you meant it seriously or not. It is ridiculous to allow ourselves to believe that no one wants to use these old commercial spaces. It is, rather, that no one wants to pay top dollar for these old spaces for conventional office work. Recreational spaces, performance spaces, artist studios, maker spaces, commercial space for more physically-intensive fields/industries, dance/music/performance practice spaces, and so forth, would be incredibly popular in a lot of these places. I know, I know, a chorus of people are going to reply that none of that is economically viable. But that's where good policy can come in: rather than trying to mess with companies' office use plans, the city would be better served directing economic development funding and tax breaks toward these causes - and, let's face it, the rents and property values of these places will eventually decline if they are underutilized anyway. Even the city of Nashua, NH bought up some old commercial properties downtown and redeveloped them into a new theater and performing arts space with a mix of public funding and private donations (yes, there was a funding drive: $21m from city, $4m donations). I bet some of Boston's corporate behemoths who are economically healthy yet using less office space would nonetheless be willing to chip in to a "downtown vitality fund".
^Photo credit @Smuttynose ; thread here
More to CityDweller's point: you've got MIT putting a Ping Pong space into a commercial building in Kendall (slide 7 here).
Is all of this going to be hard and painful and expensive, yes, but if the choice is lots of deteriorating vacant buildings vs. doing something hard, I think the latter is the right choice. Mayor Wu, tell me where to send the donation check (not kidding).
Everything is speculation until it actually happens. The only thing slowing down more projects is the return of investment doesn't happen fast enough for the real estate players.
You're right. What I'm thinking is a market crash that could be on the horizon if the Federal debt limit impasse isn't resolved and the Federal Government defaults.
