demolishing a vacant store

[Four4Rock]

The question was asked:

"...how about instead of completely demolishing a great vacant store thats huge enough, ... ... how about you tear down one or two walls that are hopefully not supporting the building structure and expand outward for more room?"

The answer is simple.  New merchandisers can get the footprint that is a proven winner for them more cost effectively (and quicker) with new construction.  The cost to completely renovate something is almost always far greater than buying new.  Think about complete renovation of, say, an 1800's Victorian house.  Cost?  Probably way more than building on a shovel-ready site.

In Amherst, NY (where I live) Tops Super Markets aquired an old Twin Fair site (with the old building) to build the very first "Tops International".  The original Twin Fair building is still there >>>inside!!!<<< the Tops store.  They actually encapsulated the old building because it was cheaper.  Kinda cool, eh?

And, just across the street from the Tops referenced above, there was a combination site that held a Wegman's and (sister company) Chase-Pitkin.  When they decided to close the Chase-Pitkin and build a bigger Wegmans, they stripped the Chase-Pitkin structure of everything but a few I-beams and the pad.  Again, far cheaper than renovation.

[Four4Rock]

Um, no.  Exactly the opposite.

It is cheaper to build new.

It is (a lot!) more expensive to renovate and/or expand an existing structure.

[tokensafari]

It's not the reason they went out of business, but it did hurt Ames i think. It would have been cheaper and more cost effective to just keep Hills' names for example and just make it a subsidiary. But Ames saw the need to bring all those stores under the Ames name and logo. It wasn't the cheapest decision in the world, unless you have a lot of money to blow at that perticular moment.  If Ames would have held on to the money they put in to renovating stores, they could have put that towards more/newer merchandise and things of that nature to make it more competitive towards Target and Wal-Mart. Just because you have a nice looking store, doesn't mean people will shop there!

[tokensafari]

All of Zayre went under the Ames name, so did Hills.

[Zayre88]

Imagine, even Kohl's does not want to open it's new store in Auburn, Maine in a former Wal-Mart, they will tore it down and build a new building !!

When stores are buying an old Ames or Bradlees, they can say the store is too old, small, the ceiling is too low...  I thought that a former Wal-Mart could fit anything:roll:

[Caldor1999]

why is it cheeper to tear down a store insed of rentvated it?

[Zayre88]

For example, Kohl's wants to open a store in that Wal-Mart.  First, they want to have a 97,000-square-foot store so they would need to expand the Wal-Mart.

Then they would have to lower the ceiling because Kohl's are that way.  They would have to remove carpets and tiles and install their flooring.  They would have to add a second entrance because Kohl's usually have two.  This means, demolish part of the front wall and electrical work around that.  Maybe the Backstore does not fit Kohl's standards so it could mean more renovations.

Then they would need to paint or make new exterior walls to fit the Kohl's style.

So there are a lot of costs just to clean the building so Kohl's can build it their own way.  That's why they often want to just demolish the building and start new and make their own plan with less obstacles.

[d_fife]

Originally posted by Zayre88
Imagine, even Kohl's does not want to open it's new store in Auburn, Maine in a former Wal-Mart, they will tore it down and build a new building !!

When stores are buying an old Ames or Bradlees, they can say the store is too old, small, the ceiling is too low...  I thought that a former Wal-Mart could fit anything:roll:

I went to that Wal-mart back in 1998. It was like all the other wal-marts. What will they do with it???

[datrain021]

How much does it cost to renovate a big box for another use? Id really like to know how much it costs to take a non-grocery big box and renovate it into a grocery store

[Caldor1999]

this caldor is still up for grabs in mittletown ny its been sitting hear for 7 years now almost 8

[Caldor1999]

if a store moved in it could revive the hall way which use to be filled wit stores back in the 90's