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Suburban retail is shifting from a mostly auto-oriented, retail-only pattern toward a mix of convenience shopping, services, entertainment and, where local demand and site conditions allow, housing and other uses. The change is gradual and uneven: a grocery-anchored neighborhood center, a regional mall and a large-format retail site face different redevelopment questions. For owners, communities and construction teams, the first step is to understand what the site can support—not to assume every vacant store needs the same solution.
What did the traditional suburban retail environment look like?
Much of the familiar suburban retail landscape took shape around shopping centers built in the 1950s and 1960s. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) describes approximately 1,200 centers developed in the United States during that period, most focused on retail. Many were designed around driving and a single primary use: shoppers arrived by car, parked, visited stores and left.
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That arrangement served its purpose, but it can leave a center less connected to the surrounding community and more dependent on traditional store traffic. Online shopping and delivery have added pressure to some conventional store formats, while local demographics and consumer demand continue to influence which tenants can succeed. Those forces do not affect every center equally. A site’s role in its community, its location and its physical configuration all matter.
The shift is not a simple story of retail disappearing. A center may retain shops while adding services, recreation or health uses; another may struggle to find a viable use for a large, aging building. ASLA characterizes the move toward a more mixed-use environment as incremental. In practice, that means changes may occur through tenant turnover, selective renovations or phased redevelopment rather than a single wholesale conversion.
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Why are some centers holding up while others face major change?
Center type and local conditions help explain why the market can show both relatively low vacancy and a growing amount of obsolete space. A national vacancy figure describes one measure of the broader market; it does not mean every format, building or submarket is equally healthy.
Cushman & Wakefield’s U.S. Retail MarketBeat for Q4 2025 reported 5.7% U.S. shopping-center vacancy. The same report said neighborhood centers accounted for 67% of the construction pipeline it tracked, describing this development as a response to demand for convenient, community-serving formats. These figures indicate activity in particular parts of the market, not a guarantee that a given center will lease or redevelop successfully.
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Other CBRE reporting describes essential retail centers, including grocery- and pharmacy-anchored sites, as having lower vacancy than other open-air centers. It also notes that some bankruptcy-related space is concentrated in underperforming suburban or mall-adjacent areas. Taken together, these sources point to a divided landscape: convenience-oriented centers may attract investment while some large or poorly located properties face more difficult reuse decisions.
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The statistics use different definitions and methods, and they should not be combined into a single measure of retail health. They are also national or source-defined findings, not a diagnosis of a specific property. Local leasing, population and site information is needed before drawing conclusions about an individual center.
How are e-commerce and changing demand reshaping a center?
Online sales and delivery can weaken demand for some traditional store formats, but they do not eliminate the value of a physical place. Stores and centers can respond by emphasizing convenience, services and experiences that meet in-person needs. Which combination makes sense depends on the community and the property.
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Possible tenants and uses identified in the source material include medical offices, recreation, entertainment, smaller retailers and other service providers. The Prince William County retail inventory analysis, for example, describes experiential tenants, medical offices, smaller tenants, recreation and residential redevelopment as possible responses in its local planning context. These are examples of strategies considered in one county; they are not evidence that every option works everywhere.
Demographic change and population growth also affect the mix a center can support. A growing community may have unmet needs for daily shopping or services; another location may not have enough demand to sustain a proposed use. A location decision should therefore consider the people the center serves, what is already available nearby and what the community still needs. CBRE’s retail vitality analysis likewise emphasizes differences in location and center performance rather than treating all retail sites alike.
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For construction and redevelopment planning, this distinction is important. A change in tenant mix may call for work within an existing building, while a broader shift in use can require a different site plan or a more extensive transformation. Those are different project scopes. The prospective use should be established before teams assume that a building or parcel can accommodate it.
Which uses might fit an underused mall or large retail box?
Potential reuse options include health services, entertainment, recreation, public or civic uses, flexible workspaces, e-commerce storage and housing. ASLA describes malls adding uses such as housing, hotels, healthcare, civic facilities and collaborative workspaces, as well as large anchor boxes being repurposed for services, entertainment, public uses or storage. These are options, not a universal redevelopment formula.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsA practical first screen is to compare the use with the site across five questions:
- What is the center’s format? A neighborhood or community center, open-air center, regional mall and large-format site do not have the same tenant role, scale or surrounding context.
- What does the local market need? Consider population and demographic change, existing nearby services and unmet community needs rather than relying only on a broad national trend.
- Can the existing building support the intended role? Determine whether the existing box or parcel could serve the proposed retail, service, civic, residential or mixed-use function. Do not assume that an available building is automatically suitable for a new use.
- How does the site connect to its surroundings? Review its relationship to nearby uses and the potential for access beyond driving alone. ASLA describes multimodal access as part of the broader transition, but the appropriate approach depends on the place.
- Is the proposal a tenant change or a larger site transformation? A new service tenant in existing space is not the same redevelopment challenge as converting a mall or reorganizing a large parcel.
This is a decision framework, not a scored feasibility model. It helps narrow the discussion, but local market evidence and site-specific evaluation are necessary to determine whether a proposed use is workable.
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What should owners and communities evaluate before construction?
Start by defining the problem the project is meant to solve. Is the goal to fill vacant space, improve a center’s convenience role, add a missing service or reconsider a large property with no clear retail path? A clear goal helps distinguish between leasing, renovation and redevelopment instead of treating them as interchangeable.
- Identify the center and its role. Establish whether the property functions as a neighborhood center, open-air center, regional mall or large-format site. Note which tenants serve essential needs and which depend more on discretionary visits.
- Ground the concept in local demand. Examine population and demographic trends and the community’s existing options and unmet needs. National vacancy or obsolescence figures can provide context, but they cannot answer whether one parcel has a viable tenant or reuse market.
- Define the intended use before fixing the scope. Decide whether the project is a tenant refresh, a change to part of a building or a broader mixed-use redevelopment. The uses discussed by ASLA and Prince William County range widely, so a project should not proceed on the assumption that any one is automatically suitable.
- Evaluate the existing building and parcel against that use. Determine whether the box or site can support the chosen function and what changes would be involved. If the proposed use cannot be supported by the existing configuration, the project team and owner need to understand that mismatch before committing to a scope.
- Consider access and connections. Review how people reach the center and how the site relates to adjacent uses. Multimodal access may be relevant to a transition away from a solely auto-oriented pattern, but the right solution is location-specific.
- Plan for a phased transition where appropriate. Because the shift is often incremental, owners may need to consider how new uses fit alongside existing tenants and how one part of a property can change without assuming the entire center will transform at once.
This sequence is a planning aid, not a substitute for project-specific due diligence. The sources do not establish that a particular reuse is feasible, or specify the approvals, construction costs or schedule for any individual site. Those questions require local evidence and evaluation of the actual property and proposal.
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What does a gradual, mixed-use transition mean in practice?
It means the future of a center may be a combination of uses rather than a choice between keeping every store or replacing all retail. A grocery-anchored center might remain primarily a place for daily needs; a mall could add housing or healthcare; a large box might become a service, recreation or civic space. The examples are conditional, and their feasibility depends on local needs and site constraints.
ASLA’s description of an incremental transition is a useful corrective to all-or-nothing redevelopment narratives. A center can evolve in stages as tenants, owners and community priorities change. But gradual change does not guarantee that a property will find a new role: some buildings and locations face more substantial obstacles, as the CBRE reporting on obsolete space illustrates.
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For owners and construction teams, the central question is not simply, “What can replace the store?” It is, “What use meets a real local need, and can this building and site serve it?” Answering that question early helps keep the redevelopment concept aligned with the property rather than with a trend alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a low shopping-center vacancy rate mean suburban retail is healthy everywhere?
No. A national vacancy rate is an aggregate measure and can coexist with obsolete space or weak performance in particular formats and locations. Local leasing conditions and the role of a specific center matter.
Can an empty anchor store automatically be converted to housing or healthcare?
No conclusion about a specific box follows from the fact that those uses are possible in some projects. The proposed use has to fit local demand and the building and parcel; the cited sources do not establish feasibility for any individual property.
Are the Prince William County redevelopment examples national trends?
No. That analysis offers examples considered in one local planning context, including recreation, medical offices and residential redevelopment. It should not be read as a measure of how often those strategies succeed across the United States.
Does the 40% figure mean that four in ten U.S. malls are obsolete?
No. CBRE’s figure refers to the share of obsolete space in its analysis attributed to large-format retail, particularly super-regional malls. It is not a count or percentage of malls.
