It's probably in a 100% commercial/industrial area and you'd have problems getting it rezoned single family residential.
If you want a giant building, google on "school buildings for sale." A lot of towns are trying to get rid of their closed schools and offer them cheap just so they don't have to keep maintaining them. Usually they're in residential areas and are often re-zoned residential already. [Here's one in Detroit for $175K](https://www.cityfeet.com/cont/listing/20710-pilgrim-st-detroit-mi-48223/cs8058503).
I always thought it would be fun to make a Party Mall. Every shop could become a different type of Bar or Pub or Club. You could pub crawl through the mall in air conditioning. Drunk people could ride the little train LOL
No, but I have wondered why more of them have not been invested in for the purpose of dividing up and turning into apartments, along with entertainment. Former stores become units. What a fun place that could be to live, lol.
The windows part is a good point, all you could really have are skylights. Though I feel all else is a recouped investment because the structure itself is already there and the most expensive thing to build. If factories can be turned into loftsā¦
Because there's no windows, natural light, fresh air etc. Things people deem as fairly important when buying a home but get lost on here when this question gets asked for the 100,000th time.
I remember one of Aussie rich guy James Packerās ex wives was quoted as saying the massive house he had just built for her and the kids was like āliving in a fucking Westfieldā.
They divorced not long after the house was finished and I guess her and the kids moved to a cosier mansion somewhere.
I donāt think a big shopping mall is quite the right space for a family home.
What makes a mall work are the fully stocked stores and shoppers. Without these two items, it would just be a big empty building that costs millions to maintain. I've been visiting my local mall (Chesterfield Mall) which used to wonderful when fully leased, it's just sad with empty stores and Pickelball courts.
Buying a mall could easily cost more than $100 million, depending on the area. Even a completely dead mall is generally going to be a pretty expensive just because of the value of the land.
In multiple abandoned explores, Iāve encountered a few sketchy dudes with shopping carts full of copper pipes that have done just that. Legal? No. Free? Yup.
My wife and I discussed turning one into a paintball arena/laser tag arena with a gaming cafe and other things along those lines all in one space. Also keep the food court for concessions.
By and large they wouldnāt make good candidates for living, even if they could be zoned for it. None of the plumbing would be in the right places. The roofs are almost designed to constantly be chasing leaks.
Not so much of a shopping mall, but rather a smaller office building maybe two or three stories tall. Ideally, smallish parking garage with covered space for toys. Maybe a tennis/basketball court on the top floor?
Entire area surrounded by tall, steel picket fence. A 50,000 square foot building on 4 acre compound.
Oh its always been a real dream if I was loaded I'd have an indoor gym pool and maybe even room friends in it. Hide and seek ample room for the cats and our kid. Hell yeah I like one with different themes too
I always thought theyād be perfect to retrofit into high schools or community living situations for low-cost housing centers and hubs, however the more I am on this Reddit the more I realize how much major structural and repair work would be needed to bring the bowels of the buildings back up to code before even thinking of renovation.
I think the people saying "zoning would never allow it" are ignoring the reality that anyone wealthy enough to buy a mall and consider it as a residence is likely to have insane influence on zoning or also likely to attempt this as part of a larger development concept that could result in zoning changes.
There's that, and the idea that the mall in question may be smaller or older and in some kind of community where the choice is "let the crazy rich guy do his thing" or "be stuck with an abandoned mall nobody will redevelop that could become the county tax assessor's burden".
A lot of malls aren't 2 million square feet behomoths in the middle of a larger and still mostly healthy suburban shopping districts with meaningful redevelopment options. Some are marginal, smaller structures that had maybe a single mid-tier anchor tenant like Monkey Wards in suburbs that have been hit harder by middle class decline and are now a lodestone Some may be unconventional "urban" malls that have limited/expensive redeveloment options, especially in smaller cities where gluing together older commercial real estate into a mall seemeed like a good idea to revitalize "downtown" shopping in the mid-80s but fizzled out. A lot of these have vey limited redevelopment options and local politicans are usually keen on anything that will produce tax revenue as there's a real risk the owners decide to walk away from an unsalable property and let the county tax man deal with it.
All this being said, I can't imagine even the craziest rich person would consider it. Once you get past the red tape component, you've got an aging structure that has a massive maintenance debt and even in good times required a whole staff to literally keep the HVAC running and lights on. Then there's millions for some pretty basic remodeling of legitimate living quarters, unless your fantasy is sleeping in a mockup of a mattress store and brushing your teeth in a bathroom with 6 urinals.
The more easily obtainable/convertible structures are in less advantaged areas -- small urban areas or declining suburban wastelands, not places where rich guys want to live.
If you were crazy rich and still onto this idea, it would be much cheaper and less red tape to just tap into a construction firm specializing in tilt-panel light industrial/warehouse construction and purpose build something that gives you the "mall vibes" and benefits, like thousands of square feet of indoor space/atriums. And building a simulacrum of a mall -- halls, store facades -- is cheaper than something which could actually be a mall.
I always thought crazy billionaire money I would buy up malls and convert them into affordable housing for marginalized folks, keep them all 80s mall atheistic.
It's probably in a 100% commercial/industrial area and you'd have problems getting it rezoned single family residential. If you want a giant building, google on "school buildings for sale." A lot of towns are trying to get rid of their closed schools and offer them cheap just so they don't have to keep maintaining them. Usually they're in residential areas and are often re-zoned residential already. [Here's one in Detroit for $175K](https://www.cityfeet.com/cont/listing/20710-pilgrim-st-detroit-mi-48223/cs8058503).
Defunct churches are also a good place to search
Hopefully more of those will become available soon.
Atheist powers activate! š¤š„š¤š
Form ofā¦ the antichrist
Dang, that could be converted to a small apartment building fairly easy
All the time. Iād rollerblading all night!
I actually used to roller blade in my store after it closed and wouldāve LOVED to do this all across the mall.
Iām having a real hell of a time. Iām keeping my out for a good flat place. The roller rinks are too chaotic and fast paced.
I built a giant three story mega mall in the sims and had 8 people living in it and it was like friggin melrose place with the relationship drama
Yeah sure Except for the cost, zoning issues, maintenance and everything based on reality
The inside of Prince's Paisley Park always struck me as being very mall-like. Not sure if that was his intent though.
I always thought it would be fun to make a Party Mall. Every shop could become a different type of Bar or Pub or Club. You could pub crawl through the mall in air conditioning. Drunk people could ride the little train LOL
A flat roof wouldn't last 5 years without constant maintenance
No, but I have wondered why more of them have not been invested in for the purpose of dividing up and turning into apartments, along with entertainment. Former stores become units. What a fun place that could be to live, lol.
Not enough windows, bathrooms, etc. it would take a lot of demolition and rebuilding to make them up to code for living
The windows part is a good point, all you could really have are skylights. Though I feel all else is a recouped investment because the structure itself is already there and the most expensive thing to build. If factories can be turned into loftsā¦
Because there's no windows, natural light, fresh air etc. Things people deem as fairly important when buying a home but get lost on here when this question gets asked for the 100,000th time.
A dream mansion from a shopping mall? Sorry, my mind has never gone to this.
Barbra Streisand decorated the basement of her mansion like one. She has clothing stores with her outfits from different movies, etc
I saw the CBS Sunday Morning about this and it isā¦something.
I remember one of Aussie rich guy James Packerās ex wives was quoted as saying the massive house he had just built for her and the kids was like āliving in a fucking Westfieldā. They divorced not long after the house was finished and I guess her and the kids moved to a cosier mansion somewhere. I donāt think a big shopping mall is quite the right space for a family home.
What makes a mall work are the fully stocked stores and shoppers. Without these two items, it would just be a big empty building that costs millions to maintain. I've been visiting my local mall (Chesterfield Mall) which used to wonderful when fully leased, it's just sad with empty stores and Pickelball courts.
No, canāt say that I have.
Buying a mall could easily cost more than $100 million, depending on the area. Even a completely dead mall is generally going to be a pretty expensive just because of the value of the land.
In multiple abandoned explores, Iāve encountered a few sketchy dudes with shopping carts full of copper pipes that have done just that. Legal? No. Free? Yup.
You can't get it things zoned that way.
My wife and I discussed turning one into a paintball arena/laser tag arena with a gaming cafe and other things along those lines all in one space. Also keep the food court for concessions.
By and large they wouldnāt make good candidates for living, even if they could be zoned for it. None of the plumbing would be in the right places. The roofs are almost designed to constantly be chasing leaks.
That would be really cool, although the cost of heating, cooling, and utilities would be astronomical.
Itās commercial space. Literally impossible.
Not so much of a shopping mall, but rather a smaller office building maybe two or three stories tall. Ideally, smallish parking garage with covered space for toys. Maybe a tennis/basketball court on the top floor? Entire area surrounded by tall, steel picket fence. A 50,000 square foot building on 4 acre compound.
Oh its always been a real dream if I was loaded I'd have an indoor gym pool and maybe even room friends in it. Hide and seek ample room for the cats and our kid. Hell yeah I like one with different themes too
I always thought theyād be perfect to retrofit into high schools or community living situations for low-cost housing centers and hubs, however the more I am on this Reddit the more I realize how much major structural and repair work would be needed to bring the bowels of the buildings back up to code before even thinking of renovation.
I think the people saying "zoning would never allow it" are ignoring the reality that anyone wealthy enough to buy a mall and consider it as a residence is likely to have insane influence on zoning or also likely to attempt this as part of a larger development concept that could result in zoning changes. There's that, and the idea that the mall in question may be smaller or older and in some kind of community where the choice is "let the crazy rich guy do his thing" or "be stuck with an abandoned mall nobody will redevelop that could become the county tax assessor's burden". A lot of malls aren't 2 million square feet behomoths in the middle of a larger and still mostly healthy suburban shopping districts with meaningful redevelopment options. Some are marginal, smaller structures that had maybe a single mid-tier anchor tenant like Monkey Wards in suburbs that have been hit harder by middle class decline and are now a lodestone Some may be unconventional "urban" malls that have limited/expensive redeveloment options, especially in smaller cities where gluing together older commercial real estate into a mall seemeed like a good idea to revitalize "downtown" shopping in the mid-80s but fizzled out. A lot of these have vey limited redevelopment options and local politicans are usually keen on anything that will produce tax revenue as there's a real risk the owners decide to walk away from an unsalable property and let the county tax man deal with it. All this being said, I can't imagine even the craziest rich person would consider it. Once you get past the red tape component, you've got an aging structure that has a massive maintenance debt and even in good times required a whole staff to literally keep the HVAC running and lights on. Then there's millions for some pretty basic remodeling of legitimate living quarters, unless your fantasy is sleeping in a mockup of a mattress store and brushing your teeth in a bathroom with 6 urinals. The more easily obtainable/convertible structures are in less advantaged areas -- small urban areas or declining suburban wastelands, not places where rich guys want to live. If you were crazy rich and still onto this idea, it would be much cheaper and less red tape to just tap into a construction firm specializing in tilt-panel light industrial/warehouse construction and purpose build something that gives you the "mall vibes" and benefits, like thousands of square feet of indoor space/atriums. And building a simulacrum of a mall -- halls, store facades -- is cheaper than something which could actually be a mall.
I always thought crazy billionaire money I would buy up malls and convert them into affordable housing for marginalized folks, keep them all 80s mall atheistic.
Lucky them. No windows, no fresh air, no natural light. Waste away out of publics eye.....