Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
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Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
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Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#2We need land value tax bad [1]
In Los Angeles I’ve watched business after business close because their rent was increased by their commercial landlord only for the property to sit vacant in some cases (no exaggeration) for over 5 years!
Thats absurd. Also as a business owner who would like some space to work out of your only options are endless swaths of vacant industrial buildings that are tens of thousands in rent a month. I don’t quite get how anyone runs a brick and mortar or has space to do anything profitable.
Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#3One "Simple Fix" for cities, albeit with limited scope: Force your Planning Commission, Zoning Board, etc. to keep track of the vacancy rates for commercial space. Then use their powers to strongly discourage the construction of yet more vacant commercial space. And/or renovation of such space to other uses.
EDIT:
- Please do not assume some trivial straw-man implementation of this idea. That includes City organization being hopelessly corrupt or incompetent.
Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#4We need land value tax bad [1] In Los Angeles I’ve watched business after business close because their rent was increased by their commercial landlord only for the property to sit vacant in some cases (no exaggeration) for over 5 years! Thats absurd. Also as a business owner who would like some space to work out of your only options are endless swaths of vacant industrial buildings that are tens of thousands in rent…
same thing happens in SF, often to businesses that have been a valued part of the local neighbourhood for years. it's infuriating.
Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#5Interesting, but It doesn't answer why a bank would hold a completely vacant building for 15 years.
I think we need Vacancy taxes that go up based on the percentage of time vacant over different spans of time. Anything that makes owning an empty building a bad investment in all circumstances. This needs to apply to all units in a multitenant building.
Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#6We need land value tax bad [1] In Los Angeles I’ve watched business after business close because their rent was increased by their commercial landlord only for the property to sit vacant in some cases (no exaggeration) for over 5 years! Thats absurd. Also as a business owner who would like some space to work out of your only options are endless swaths of vacant industrial buildings that are tens of thousands in rent…
Don't underestimate how many businesses are supplementing their income with dirty money.
Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#7Pricing something based on what you project to make over 20 years seems like an insane way to go about it. Nobody can predict that far in the future.
It's a no-lose scenario for banks though, which is why it's done that way I guess.
Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#8[deleted]
Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#9In the current world isn’t the “downtown parking lot” situation more common? Where the value of the asset is increasing so quickly year over year, that locking in a contract right now for x years mean forfeiting the increases of future years - meaning the value of your asset is more when vacant than when rented/built on? IE why sell my parking lot this year for $5M when I’m 2 years it will be worth $7M, so I’m better off waiting and taking no income for the next two years as opposed to taking $5M and investing it.
Re: Why do commercial spaces sit vacant?
#10One "Simple Fix" for cities, albeit with limited scope: Force your Planning Commission, Zoning Board, etc. to keep track of the vacancy rates for commercial space. Then use their powers to strongly discourage the construction of yet more vacant commercial space. And/or renovation of such space to other uses. EDIT: - Please do not assume some trivial straw-man implementation of this idea. That includes City organizati…
How would this help? If the existing operators refuse to lower rents and leave their spaces vacant then under this scheme no one else can build new spaces which rent at lower rates. You would just be stuck with vacant properties at above-market rates.