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It’s impossible not to notice the vacancies when walking into a shopping mall in the United States. The New York Times recently reported that 15 percent of malls are 10 to 40 percent vacant—up from 5 percent with that range of vacancy a decade ago. However, in comparison, in 2006, 94 percent of malls had a vacancy rate of 10 percent or less. In addition, 3.4 percent (or approximately 30 million square feet) are more than 40 percent empty. Taking all of this into account, Green Street Advisors, a firm that tracks the performance of the mall industry, told the Times that the increased number of mall vacancies signals the onset of the “death spiral” of malls in the United States.
