Reusing Big Boxes

An interesting article stood out in the UrbanLand (June 2009) magazine, "Reusing Big Boxes". The article shed light on the many vacant big box retail stores and their potential for adaptive use. We have all seen the vacant Wal-Mart, Home Depot or Kmart store but because of the economy and changing consumer spending habits, these building will be hard pressed to find another tenant in their current state. Wal-Mart Realty has a website, http://www.wal-martrealty.com/, with it's sole purpose to dispose of these unwanted buildings and property. The vacant buildings cause a cloud of economic decline and disinvestment over its location.

Creative thinkers are changing the way they view these buildings. What can we use them for or what can our municipality use them for? Randall County Justice Center, in Canyon Texas, needed a solution to the county's 100-year old courthouse. So, they bought a former Wal-Mart store, modernized it and turned into their new courthouse with five courtrooms plus offices. Peggy Palmer Summers Memorial Library, Lebanon, Missouri, development plans were stuck in neutral because the small town couldn't afford the estimated $6 million for a new building. Through donations and volunteer work, the community purchased a former Kmart building and transformed the library into a reality.

Please let us know if you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions on how to renovate a vacant big box in your neighborhood.