Big box stores like Target and Walmart erect one-story buildings that are bigger than 20 thousand square feet all over the United States, and some of them close down leaving behind large abandoned buildings. Now institutions like libraries, churches and museums are taking advantage of the big empty stores to create new and interesting repurposed buildings.
Big box stores like Walmart and Target erect one-story buildings that are bigger than 20 thousand square feet all over the United States, and some of them go out of business leaving behind large abandoned buildings.
Now institutions like libraries, churches and museums are taking advantage of the big empty stores to create new and interesting repurposed buildings.
Julia Christensen, author of a book and website about repurposing big box stores found a museum dedicated to Spam in Minnesota that used to be a Kmart store, along with a former Winn-Dixie that was changed into a Calvary Chapel in Florida, and a Walmart that was changed into a speedway.
One estimate says that about 11 percent of big box stores are currently abandoned, compared with just 7 percent in 2008.
The combined area of all those stores makes approximately 300 million square feet of unused space.
A few companies have closed the doors to all of their stores including Circuit City, and CompUSA.
Many other companies like Best Buy, Sears, and Toys “R” Us are shutting down hundreds of store locations collectively.
