Some context - I live in Buffalo, one of the areas in the 10-25% range.
You can't give away commercial space here in Buffalo. Prices are <$1/sq in a lot of places. A few years ago, ~60% of the commercial space in North Buffalo was vacant.
Our malls are...problematic. Two have already converted into office space, with a third being slowly transitioned as it empties (I believe it is empty now). One of our malls is dying a slow and painful death, even as it is surrounded by a booming retail space. Our other mall has been designed very well to be a destination vs an in/out type of location.
But there are still many commercial vacancies. I don't know a lot about zoning, but many of these locations should really be repurposed to residential. There's also a large sprawl problem.
Finally, it looks like Niagara Falls was included in that statistic and Niagara Falls is an absolute shithole.
You can't give away commercial space here in Buffalo. Prices are <$1/sq in a lot of places. A few years ago, ~60% of the commercial space in North Buffalo was vacant.
Our malls are...problematic. Two have already converted into office space, with a third being slowly transitioned as it empties (I believe it is empty now). One of our malls is dying a slow and painful death, even as it is surrounded by a booming retail space. Our other mall has been designed very well to be a destination vs an in/out type of location.
But there are still many commercial vacancies. I don't know a lot about zoning, but many of these locations should really be repurposed to residential. There's also a large sprawl problem.
Finally, it looks like Niagara Falls was included in that statistic and Niagara Falls is an absolute shithole.