One of the people that I met yesterday at my talk to the NEDA/SEDC Annual Conference was Larry Patrick, who is in charge of redevelopment for old Wal-Mart stores. This is a huge project, which has grown larger as Wal-Mart rolls out more of their supercenters.
He told me “We got rid of 22 million sf in the past year. Today we own less old inventory than what we did in 1995.”
“We’ve been converting a lot of them into charter schools, call centers and even hospitals. Three years ago, we helped convert one within a two-week period into a high school when a tornado hit the Laurel, MS high school. The kids had t-shirts printed up that said, “I graduated from Wal-Mart High!”
The recent Katrina tragedy spurred Wal-Mart to donate 31 of these closed buildings for hurricane relief work. They signed 90-day licenses at no charge for barracks, community centers, dormitories, etc.
I want to research innovative uses for old big boxes. Larry is going to send me more info, but if you know of any creative uses for these old big boxes, please email me at jschultz@agracel.com.
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