Real estate developers are building housing inside of or next to shopping malls as department stores like Macy’s, JC Penney and Sears shrink or cease to…
More people are living at American malls as real estate developers knock down department stores and construct apartment buildings in their place.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weeklyat American malls. But as the country contends with a housing crisis, the fastest growing use of these spaces is apartment complexes, real estate developers said. As of January 2022, at least 192 U.S. malls planned to add housing to their footprint, and at least 33 had constructed apartments since the pandemic began, according to, a real estate consulting firm.
For mall owners, the numbers make sense. While top-tier malls continue to be in high demand, nearly 34 million square feet of U.S. mall space is vacant and off the market. Most Americans live within an hour of a mall with a high vacancy rate or low consumer traffic — or is abandoned altogether. It might seem easy enough to transform an old Macy's store into a few dozen apartments, but given the shape of the building, it's difficult to do in a way that gives every apartment access to natural light and air.
However, rather than letting the historic building fall into ruin, developers came in and built 48 micro units on the second and third floors. Dozens of tenants now live there, and real estate investors have bought other units to rent on Airbnb. On that level, apartments were built inside of former storefronts. The units are unique but they also come with quirks. For example, they all have elaborate foyers with floor-to-ceiling windows, but those front rooms are also on full display to the public, which can create privacy concerns. Plus, some of the units don't have windows because developers had to work with the storefront's originally layout, said Borchardt.
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