Repositioning Vacant Buildings
The Brilliance of Repositioning Vacant
Six years ago Centra Health, a Virginia regional health organization that owns hospitals in Southside Virginia, moved an outpatient clinic into a large vacant and former retail space on the lower level of The Plaza, a Lynchburg shopping center that’s been around for more than fifty years.
The hospital group and economic developers were hoping the move would get The Plaza back into a respectable position. Centra leaders termed their new location the “big-box medical center” versus the “big-box department store.”
And these types of moves have been happening very frequently across Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Commercial real estate developers own lots of vacant properties; and repositioning vacant space with non-traditional tenants just makes sense. According to CoStar Realty, the percentage of U.S. shopping center space devoted to non-retail and non-restaurant is close to 25%, and it’s not just the retail centers that are converting their spaces.
Here in the Staunton-Waynesboro area of Virginia where I reside many stand-alone retail spaces have repositioned vacant spaces by converting their use. Our local hospital group has opened outpatient centers by converting an old Blockbuster Video building, a building that was previously a bank, and most recently a fairly large car dealership was successfully converted to healthcare space.
Although health-related industries command a large chunk of many retail makeovers, other non-retail tenants are moving in as well. As I travel across Central and Northern Virginia I spot many once-retail stores now occupied by churches, community centers, city offices, and other non-traditional uses.
Holiday Signs has been actively involved in re-branding many former retail stores. Renovating existing retail space has many inherent values:
- Great Roadway Exposure, as most retailers do their homework on site location and visibility;
- Good Bones to Work from for Remodeling;
- Electricity Already In Place for Renovated Signage.
Within a short trip of our sign company’s main location south of Richmond, there are many office, retail, or multi-tenant residential renovation projects completed or underway:
Renovation of the 100-year old Broad Street Hotel
Renovating the old Signet Building
Various Virginia and DC Urban Development Projects Recently Completed by The Timmons Group
TOP VIRGINIA-AREA ELECTRIC SIGN PROJECTS FROM 2014
WE WORK IN YOUR TOWN, VIRGINIA!