Walked through a strip mall in Tucson that's been dying for 10 years, crazy how fast it went

Honestly I was back visiting family last week and drove by this plaza on Speedway that used to be packed when I was a kid. Now it's like 70% empty. The old Blockbuster spot has been a storage unit place for like 5 years. A mattress store that never has customers. The only thing still open is a dollar store and a taqueria. Made me think about how lease terms must be brutal for those landlords now. Anyone else seeing this kind of decay in older retail spots in your area?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_john12d ago

You know, I used to roll my eyes when people talked about how malls and strip centers were dying. I figured they were just being dramatic, that it was just normal business cycles. But then I went back to my hometown in Ohio last month and saw the same thing you're describing. The plaza where I bought my first pair of sneakers as a teenager is now mostly plywood and a vape shop. It really hit me how fast this can happen once the anchor stores leave and the parking lot starts to crack. I have to admit I was wrong, this decay is real and it feels different than just regular economic ups and downs. Those landlords must be desperate, holding onto empty shells while the whole area shifts around them.

smith.anna12d ago

So did the old Sears or JCPenney anchor spot just get turned into a storage place or a church? It's wild how fast those big boxes get gutted and repurposed. @the_john hit the nail on the head about the parking lot cracking - once that starts, nobody wants to fix it because the whole place is already a ghost town. Best I've seen work for these plazas is when a town lets someone carve it up into a self-storage spot and a few cheap office rentals, but that's a slow bleed.