WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.820 OK, I want you to picture something just for 00:00:01.820 --> 00:00:04.900 a second. You're in your car. It's, I don't know, 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:07.820 a Tuesday evening. You're tired. Right. The end 00:00:07.820 --> 00:00:10.539 of a long day. Exactly. And you have that list 00:00:10.539 --> 00:00:12.320 of errands. You know, you have to pick up the 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:15.490 dry cleaning, maybe grab a bottle of wine. And 00:00:15.490 --> 00:00:17.550 get some takeout because cooking is just absolutely 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:20.149 not happening tonight. Oh, that is a very familiar 00:00:20.149 --> 00:00:22.769 feeling. So you pull off the main road into this 00:00:22.769 --> 00:00:25.329 sea of asphalt that's probably a little cracked. 00:00:25.510 --> 00:00:28.050 Maybe there's a pothole you have to dodge. You 00:00:28.050 --> 00:00:30.289 find a spot and you park right in front of a 00:00:30.289 --> 00:00:33.990 row of like beige stucco storefronts. And the 00:00:33.990 --> 00:00:36.030 lighting is probably a little bit harsh. Yeah. 00:00:36.070 --> 00:00:37.950 You know, that sort of orange glow. Maybe there's 00:00:37.950 --> 00:00:41.530 the neon. sign buzzing somewhere exactly it is 00:00:41.530 --> 00:00:43.950 not beautiful in fact if you asked an architect 00:00:43.950 --> 00:00:46.490 they might tell you it's a crime against humanity 00:00:46.490 --> 00:00:49.649 but you're there you're participating in this 00:00:49.649 --> 00:00:52.829 ritual that millions of us do every single day 00:00:52.829 --> 00:00:55.729 without a second thought we are talking of course 00:00:55.729 --> 00:00:58.729 about the strip hall the ubiquitous strip or 00:00:58.729 --> 00:01:01.630 uh what i like to call the retail spleen of the 00:01:01.630 --> 00:01:04.739 suburbs and look I know what you might be thinking. 00:01:04.859 --> 00:01:06.620 You're thinking, we're going to do a whole deep 00:01:06.620 --> 00:01:09.799 dive on strip malls, on those ugly L -shaped 00:01:09.799 --> 00:01:12.719 blocks. But here's the thing, and this is why 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:15.560 we're here today. We dismiss them because they 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:18.659 are ugly. We ignore them because they are everywhere. 00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:20.599 They're invisible because they're so visible. 00:01:20.739 --> 00:01:23.459 Yes. But if you actually peel back the stucco, 00:01:23.579 --> 00:01:25.939 this is one of the most fascinating economic 00:01:25.939 --> 00:01:28.599 and architectural machines ever invented. It 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:30.760 really, really is. It's a perfect case study 00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:33.390 in how the automobile... completely conquered 00:01:33.390 --> 00:01:36.510 the world. It's a story about zoning laws, global 00:01:36.510 --> 00:01:40.530 oil crises, tax loopholes, and even construction 00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:42.989 technology. So that's the mission today. We're 00:01:42.989 --> 00:01:45.189 going to take this thing that is arguably the 00:01:45.189 --> 00:01:47.370 most invisible structure in our lives, invisible 00:01:47.370 --> 00:01:50.030 because we refuse to really look at it, and we're 00:01:50.030 --> 00:01:51.689 going to figure out why it exists, why it looks 00:01:51.689 --> 00:01:53.989 the way it does, and why, despite everyone screaming 00:01:53.989 --> 00:01:55.890 about the retail apocalypse, these things are 00:01:55.890 --> 00:01:59.090 actually somehow multiplying. We are going to 00:01:59.090 --> 00:02:02.760 make you see that L -shaped concrete lot. in 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:05.099 a whole new light okay so let's start with the 00:02:05.099 --> 00:02:08.159 absolute basics if i'm looking at a row of stores 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:10.719 how do i know it's a strip mall and not just 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:13.620 you know a street with shops is there a technical 00:02:13.620 --> 00:02:16.939 sort of textbook definition or is it just a vibe 00:02:16.939 --> 00:02:19.629 oh there is Absolutely a technical definition. 00:02:19.729 --> 00:02:22.009 Yeah, in the industry. And especially if you 00:02:22.009 --> 00:02:25.050 look at how the International Council of Shopping 00:02:25.050 --> 00:02:28.710 Centers, the ICSC, defines it, there are a few 00:02:28.710 --> 00:02:31.389 non -negotiables. Okay. First, it has to be an 00:02:31.389 --> 00:02:33.889 open -air shopping center. Open -air, so no roof 00:02:33.889 --> 00:02:37.949 over the walkway, no big atrium with a sad little 00:02:37.949 --> 00:02:40.310 fountain in the middle. Correct. If it's enclosed, 00:02:40.710 --> 00:02:42.270 you're talking about a regional mall. That's 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:44.409 a different beast. Here, you're open to the elements. 00:02:44.969 --> 00:02:48.250 Second is the configuration. The stores are arranged 00:02:48.250 --> 00:02:51.009 in a row or a strip. Hence the name. Hence the 00:02:51.009 --> 00:02:54.129 name. And crucially, there is a sidewalk, a footpath 00:02:54.129 --> 00:02:56.750 that runs directly in front of all the stores. 00:02:56.949 --> 00:02:59.030 Which seems kind of obvious, right? I mean, you 00:02:59.030 --> 00:03:01.430 need a place to walk, but that sidewalk, it's 00:03:01.430 --> 00:03:03.550 not a public street sidewalk, is it? It's private 00:03:03.550 --> 00:03:05.810 property. That's a great point. It's a private 00:03:05.810 --> 00:03:09.000 transition zone. But the real defining characteristic, 00:03:09.419 --> 00:03:11.400 the thing that separates a strip mall from a 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:13.919 traditional main street or a downtown district, 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:17.759 is its relationship with the car. Oh, okay. In 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.360 a strip mall, the parking is located in front 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:22.919 of the building, between the stores and the street. 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.379 That's the key. So the building itself is pushed 00:03:25.379 --> 00:03:28.319 way back from the road, and the asphalt is the 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:30.840 welcome mat. It's the foyer. It's the first thing 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:34.180 you encounter. In a traditional city layout, 00:03:34.500 --> 00:03:36.699 the buildings are pushed right up to the sidewalk. 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:39.460 They engage with the street and parking is either 00:03:39.460 --> 00:03:41.680 on the street or maybe hidden in the back. Right. 00:03:41.780 --> 00:03:44.500 The strip mall completely flips that. It turns 00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:47.039 its back on the street and says the car is the 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:50.120 primary customer. The building itself has to 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.500 retreat to the rear of the lot to create a stage 00:03:52.500 --> 00:03:54.560 for the automobiles. It's interesting you call 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:57.840 it a stage because when you drive past a successful 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:00.819 strip mall, what do you see? You see a full parking 00:04:00.819 --> 00:04:03.539 lot. It's a form of social proof. Precisely. 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:06.560 It's a visual cue. If you hid the parking lot 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.860 in the back, a driver doing, say, 45 miles an 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:12.340 hour on that main road wouldn't know if the place 00:04:12.340 --> 00:04:15.740 was popular or completely dead. The visible parking 00:04:15.740 --> 00:04:18.839 lot is a billboard that screams, people are here, 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:21.339 it's safe, it's busy, you should be here too. 00:04:21.579 --> 00:04:23.839 And these things are almost always on what you 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:26.220 called arterial roads. They aren't tucked away 00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:28.399 on quiet neighborhood streets. Oh no, never. 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:31.930 They thrive on traffic volume. They are, in a 00:04:31.930 --> 00:04:34.750 way, parasites on the daily commute. Developers 00:04:34.750 --> 00:04:36.290 talk about this all the time. You have the going 00:04:36.290 --> 00:04:37.850 to work side of the street and the going home 00:04:37.850 --> 00:04:40.110 side. And you want the going home side. You fight 00:04:40.110 --> 00:04:42.949 tooth and nail for the going home side because 00:04:42.949 --> 00:04:44.949 that's when you stop for the wine and the dry 00:04:44.949 --> 00:04:47.350 cleaning and the takeout. It's a massive difference 00:04:47.350 --> 00:04:49.269 in revenue. That makes so much sense. I also 00:04:49.269 --> 00:04:52.529 want to touch on this idea of isolation. In the 00:04:52.529 --> 00:04:54.569 research, it said these are often self -contained. 00:04:54.769 --> 00:04:57.509 And I've noticed this in my own area. There is 00:04:57.509 --> 00:05:00.670 a strip mall that literally backs up. to a residential 00:05:00.670 --> 00:05:03.629 street. I can see the back of the grocery store 00:05:03.629 --> 00:05:06.550 from my friend's backyard. But for him to actually 00:05:06.550 --> 00:05:09.709 get there, to walk there, he has to walk almost 00:05:09.709 --> 00:05:12.790 a mile all the way around the block to the main 00:05:12.790 --> 00:05:15.110 road and then into the parking lot. And that 00:05:15.110 --> 00:05:18.550 is absolutely by design or maybe a limitation 00:05:18.550 --> 00:05:22.329 of the design. The strip mall is an island. It 00:05:22.329 --> 00:05:24.350 has to turn its back on the community it's supposed 00:05:24.350 --> 00:05:26.810 to serve in order to face the road. Why though? 00:05:26.870 --> 00:05:30.180 Why wall it off? Well, The rear of a strip mall 00:05:30.180 --> 00:05:33.740 is a service corridor. It's not pretty. It's 00:05:33.740 --> 00:05:35.860 where the dumpsters are, where the delivery trucks 00:05:35.860 --> 00:05:38.279 make noise at 5 in the morning, where the grease 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:40.079 traps from the restaurants are. You don't want 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:42.300 a path for kids to walk through there. Exactly. 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:44.620 For safety, for liability, and for aesthetic 00:05:44.620 --> 00:05:46.740 reasons, you don't want pedestrian connections 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:49.399 there. So you create this really weird dynamic 00:05:49.399 --> 00:05:52.579 where the neighborhood that is the primary customer 00:05:52.579 --> 00:05:55.819 base is physically walled off from it. So it's 00:05:55.819 --> 00:05:58.259 the architecture of convenience for the driver, 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:01.060 but total hostility for the walker. That's a 00:06:01.060 --> 00:06:03.329 perfect way to put it. It assumes you'll always 00:06:03.329 --> 00:06:05.689 arrive by car. OK, before we get into the whole 00:06:05.689 --> 00:06:08.089 origin story, I feel like we need to clear up 00:06:08.089 --> 00:06:12.129 the names because strip mall has a bit of a stigma, 00:06:12.230 --> 00:06:14.410 doesn't it? Sounds a bit, I don't know, a bit 00:06:14.410 --> 00:06:17.430 trashy. It does. It absolutely does. It implies 00:06:17.430 --> 00:06:20.110 a certain grittiness or lack of sophistication. 00:06:20.209 --> 00:06:23.569 So the industry, the developers and real estate 00:06:23.569 --> 00:06:26.709 brokers, they try to rebrand it. With what? You'll 00:06:26.709 --> 00:06:29.410 hear strip center, which just sounds a bit more 00:06:29.410 --> 00:06:31.470 clinical, more professional. Or you'll hear. 00:06:31.790 --> 00:06:35.569 Plaza. The plaza. Oh, that always sounds so fancy 00:06:35.569 --> 00:06:36.889 until you get there and you realize it's just 00:06:36.889 --> 00:06:39.089 a big shop, a laundromat and a subway. Right. 00:06:39.170 --> 00:06:42.350 Or shopping village, which is my personal favorite 00:06:42.350 --> 00:06:44.889 because it's the absolute furthest thing from 00:06:44.889 --> 00:06:47.329 a village you could possibly imagine. A village 00:06:47.329 --> 00:06:50.629 implies, you know, community, walkability. A 00:06:50.629 --> 00:06:53.470 public square. Yes. This is the opposite of that. 00:06:53.550 --> 00:06:55.370 And then you have the size distinctions, which 00:06:55.370 --> 00:06:57.089 are important. Right. So we have the mini mall. 00:06:57.500 --> 00:06:59.399 The classic, the one that sort of spawned on 00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:02.560 every corner in the 80s, 7 -Eleven plus, you 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:04.600 know, three or four other little stores. And 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:06.579 on the other end of the spectrum, the power center. 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:09.160 Which is the industry term for those massive, 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:12.620 sprawling complexes. They're anchored by a Target, 00:07:12.779 --> 00:07:16.860 a Best Buy, a Kohl's, a Home Depot. But if you 00:07:16.860 --> 00:07:19.120 look at the structure, it's just a strip mall 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:22.300 on steroids. The same DNA. Okay, so we know what 00:07:22.300 --> 00:07:25.269 it is now. A row of stores. Push back from the 00:07:25.269 --> 00:07:27.709 road, parking in the front, facing the traffic. 00:07:28.009 --> 00:07:32.170 But this design had to be invented. I mean, humans 00:07:32.170 --> 00:07:34.329 have been trading for thousands of years in markets 00:07:34.329 --> 00:07:36.050 and main streets. We didn't always trade like 00:07:36.050 --> 00:07:37.949 this. Where does this lineage actually start? 00:07:38.300 --> 00:07:40.279 Well, to find the grandfather of the strip mall, 00:07:40.379 --> 00:07:42.819 we have to go to the spiritual home of car culture. 00:07:42.939 --> 00:07:45.560 Has to be Los Angeles. Of course. Yeah. Los Angeles 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:48.180 in the 1920s. Okay. In the 20s, car ownership 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:50.560 was just exploding, but the city infrastructure 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:52.420 hadn't really caught up yet. So you had these 00:07:52.420 --> 00:07:54.639 things called drive -in markets. And I want you 00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:57.060 to picture, you know, a piece of property where 00:07:57.060 --> 00:07:59.279 a few independent vendors, a butcher, a baker, 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:01.699 a produce guy, would set up shop together. Oh, 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:04.290 okay. They weren't in one unified building. but 00:08:04.290 --> 00:08:07.189 they were clustered together on one lot, specifically 00:08:07.189 --> 00:08:09.889 catering to people who were pulling up in their 00:08:09.889 --> 00:08:12.350 new Model Ts. So it was a cluster of convenience 00:08:12.350 --> 00:08:15.230 designed for the car. Exactly. But it was still 00:08:15.230 --> 00:08:18.050 a bit chaotic. It wasn't the single unified architectural 00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:21.709 form that we know today. For the real year zero 00:08:21.709 --> 00:08:25.230 of the modern strip mall, we have to go to 1930. 00:08:25.930 --> 00:08:29.470 And surprisingly, it's not in California. Oh, 00:08:29.490 --> 00:08:32.259 okay. Lay it on me. It's in Washington, D .C. 00:08:32.419 --> 00:08:34.120 D .C.? That's not what I expected. Not at all. 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:37.000 The neighborhood's called Cleveland Park, and 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:38.860 the development was called the Park and Shop. 00:08:39.340 --> 00:08:41.039 Park and Shop. I mean, it's an instruction manual. 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:43.320 It says exactly what to do. It literally was. 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:46.299 Yeah. And you have to understand, in 1930, this 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:49.559 was a radical, radical concept. The prevailing 00:08:49.559 --> 00:08:51.659 wisdom of all retail was that your storefront 00:08:51.659 --> 00:08:53.820 window had to be on the sidewalk. That's how 00:08:53.820 --> 00:08:55.539 you got foot traffic. That's how people saw your 00:08:55.539 --> 00:08:58.779 goods. Of course, window shopping. Yes. The developers 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:01.519 of Park and Shop took an insane gamble. They 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:03.980 built the stores in an L -shape and deliberately 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:06.419 set them back from the street to create a dedicated 00:09:06.419 --> 00:09:09.559 parking court in the front. And the banks and 00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:11.700 the city planners must have thought they were 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:15.500 absolutely crazy. You're wasting your most valuable 00:09:15.500 --> 00:09:20.120 real estate, the frontage, on storing cars? The 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:22.299 banks hated it. They thought it was a complete 00:09:22.299 --> 00:09:24.039 waste of frontage. They couldn't get their heads 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:26.320 around it. Yeah. But the developers understood 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:29.139 something fundamental was changing. The customer 00:09:29.139 --> 00:09:31.279 base was changing. They weren't walking from 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:33.120 the trolley stop anymore. They were driving. 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:35.039 And if they couldn't park, they couldn't shop. 00:09:35.139 --> 00:09:37.620 They'd just keep driving. The car created a new 00:09:37.620 --> 00:09:39.919 problem, and the park and shop was the solution. 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:43.570 Who was the anchor tenant? The big draw that 00:09:43.570 --> 00:09:46.129 got people to try this new thing. It was a Piggly 00:09:46.129 --> 00:09:49.389 Wiggly supermarket. That is perfect. That's actually 00:09:49.389 --> 00:09:51.450 perfect because Piggly Wiggly was the company 00:09:51.450 --> 00:09:54.070 that invented the whole concept of self -service 00:09:54.070 --> 00:09:56.649 grocery shopping. That's right. So you have the 00:09:56.649 --> 00:09:58.950 store that invented self -service shopping inside 00:09:58.950 --> 00:10:01.470 the center that invented self -service parking. 00:10:01.690 --> 00:10:03.950 It's a beautiful parallel, isn't it? The whole 00:10:03.950 --> 00:10:06.230 experience was being redesigned around individual 00:10:06.230 --> 00:10:09.149 convenience and the automobile. And here's the 00:10:09.149 --> 00:10:11.809 most amazing part. That parking shop. In Cleveland 00:10:11.809 --> 00:10:13.629 Park. It's still there. It's still operating 00:10:13.629 --> 00:10:16.549 today. It survived the Great Depression, World 00:10:16.549 --> 00:10:19.450 War II, the flight to the suburbs in the 50s, 00:10:19.470 --> 00:10:22.169 the urban renewal of the 60s, the rise of the 00:10:22.169 --> 00:10:24.809 Internet. It's anchored by a target now. But 00:10:24.809 --> 00:10:27.950 the layout, the L -shape, the parking in front 00:10:27.950 --> 00:10:31.870 is identical. That is genuinely wild. It proves 00:10:31.870 --> 00:10:34.110 that this isn't just a trend or a style. It's 00:10:34.110 --> 00:10:37.169 a highly, highly efficient machine for commerce. 00:10:37.529 --> 00:10:40.490 It is. But if the parking shop was the, let's 00:10:40.490 --> 00:10:43.039 say, the prototype, the mass production didn't 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:45.720 really happen until much, much later. The strip 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:47.679 mall didn't become the default setting of the 00:10:47.679 --> 00:10:50.200 American landscape until the 1970s. And this 00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:51.779 is where the story gets really interesting to 00:10:51.779 --> 00:10:53.919 me, because usually when we talk about the history 00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:55.740 of architecture, we talk about, you know, a specific 00:10:55.740 --> 00:10:57.779 visionary architect or an artistic movement. 00:10:57.980 --> 00:10:59.919 But the strip mall explosion, it wasn't about 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:03.679 art. It was about geopolitics and, weirdly, chemistry. 00:11:03.980 --> 00:11:05.899 It absolutely was. To understand the mini mall 00:11:05.899 --> 00:11:08.059 boom of the 70s and 80s, you have to look at 00:11:08.059 --> 00:11:11.379 the 1973 oil crisis. OK, connect the dots for 00:11:11.379 --> 00:11:14.139 us. How does an oil embargo in the Middle East 00:11:14.139 --> 00:11:17.620 lead to a 7 -Eleven and a nail salon in Reseda, 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:22.440 California? So 1973, the OPEC oil embargo hits. 00:11:22.620 --> 00:11:25.759 Gas prices, as we all know, they skyrocket. But 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:28.299 more importantly for this story, the supply chain 00:11:28.299 --> 00:11:30.720 for independent gas stations completely collapses. 00:11:31.640 --> 00:11:34.240 Before 1973, there were gas stations on almost 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:36.919 every major corner. You remember? The full -service 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:38.799 kind. Right, where a guy in a uniform would come 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.080 out, check your oil, wipe your windshield. Exactly. 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:42.960 The crisis wiped thousands of them out. They 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:45.490 just went bankrupt. Almost overnight. Now, think 00:11:45.490 --> 00:11:47.529 about where gas stations are located. Always 00:11:47.529 --> 00:11:49.509 on a corner. The intersection of two main roads. 00:11:49.730 --> 00:11:52.590 Always. It is the absolute best, highest visibility, 00:11:52.889 --> 00:11:55.710 highest traffic real estate in a suburban grid. 00:11:55.870 --> 00:11:58.129 And suddenly, in cities like Los Angeles, you 00:11:58.129 --> 00:12:00.809 had hundreds of these prime corner lots sitting 00:12:00.809 --> 00:12:03.610 vacant with abandoned pumps on them. It's a vacuum. 00:12:04.009 --> 00:12:06.850 And nature abhors a vacuum. And real estate developers 00:12:06.850 --> 00:12:09.409 abhor it even more. So in come the developers. 00:12:10.029 --> 00:12:12.009 In comes a group called La Mancha Developers. 00:12:12.029 --> 00:12:13.769 They were one of the pioneers, among others. 00:12:14.190 --> 00:12:17.929 And they saw these small, square -ish lots. They 00:12:17.929 --> 00:12:20.370 were too small for the big supermarket, but way 00:12:20.370 --> 00:12:23.169 too valuable to just leave empty. So they developed 00:12:23.169 --> 00:12:25.389 what we now call the mini mall concept. Right. 00:12:25.470 --> 00:12:29.009 A tight L -shape, maybe four or five small storefronts, 00:12:29.009 --> 00:12:31.570 with the parking just squeezed into the middle, 00:12:31.629 --> 00:12:34.149 right on that corner. And this is where the construction 00:12:34.149 --> 00:12:36.090 technology comes into play, isn't it? Because 00:12:36.090 --> 00:12:38.070 these things went up incredibly fast. It felt 00:12:38.070 --> 00:12:40.169 like they just appeared overnight. This is the 00:12:40.169 --> 00:12:43.149 part of the story most people miss. It wasn't 00:12:43.149 --> 00:12:45.950 just that the land became available. It was that 00:12:45.950 --> 00:12:48.429 the method of building them was perfected at 00:12:48.429 --> 00:12:50.750 the same time. We're talking about the era of 00:12:50.750 --> 00:12:53.950 tilt -up concrete construction. Tilt -up. Okay, 00:12:54.009 --> 00:12:55.429 break that down for me. What does that mean? 00:12:55.610 --> 00:12:57.269 Okay, so traditionally, if you want to build 00:12:57.269 --> 00:12:59.549 a concrete wall, you build a big wooden frame 00:12:59.549 --> 00:13:02.230 called a form, and you pour the concrete into 00:13:02.230 --> 00:13:04.889 it vertically. It's slow. It takes a lot of labor, 00:13:04.950 --> 00:13:08.379 a lot of scaffolding. Right. Tilt -up is. It's 00:13:08.379 --> 00:13:10.360 kind of brilliant in its simplicity and cheapness. 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:13.419 You pour the concrete for the wall panels flat 00:13:13.419 --> 00:13:16.320 on the ground, literally on the floor slab of 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:18.240 the building you're about to build or even just 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:20.759 on the asphalt of the parking lot. So the parking 00:13:20.759 --> 00:13:22.919 lot becomes the factory floor for the walls. 00:13:23.159 --> 00:13:25.820 Exactly. You let them cure right there. Then 00:13:25.820 --> 00:13:29.379 a crane comes in, hooks onto these massive panels 00:13:29.379 --> 00:13:32.730 and just. tilts them up into their vertical position 00:13:32.730 --> 00:13:36.090 you bolt them together put on a simple roof paint 00:13:36.090 --> 00:13:38.370 the whole thing beige and you're basically done 00:13:38.370 --> 00:13:41.429 you can build an entire mini mall in a matter 00:13:41.429 --> 00:13:45.019 of weeks not months It's unbelievably cost effective. 00:13:45.259 --> 00:13:47.059 And that explains why they all look the same. 00:13:47.179 --> 00:13:49.840 They are quite literally cast from the same mold 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:52.379 on the ground. And why they can sometimes feel 00:13:52.379 --> 00:13:54.840 so flimsy or temporary? It's just a concrete 00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:57.340 shell. But that technology, combined with all 00:13:57.340 --> 00:13:59.159 those cheap corner lots from the gas station 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:02.299 bust, it created a gold rush. How big of a rush 00:14:02.299 --> 00:14:04.100 are we talking? In the Los Angeles metropolitan 00:14:04.100 --> 00:14:06.639 area alone, they built something like 600 of 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:10.340 these mini malls in just a few years. 600. That 00:14:10.340 --> 00:14:13.620 is a massive, sudden transformation of the visual 00:14:13.620 --> 00:14:16.139 landscape of a city. It was so aggressive that 00:14:16.139 --> 00:14:18.639 people really started to hate them. There was 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:21.759 a huge backlash. They were seen as blight. They 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:24.360 attracted litter. They increased traffic congestion 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:26.620 right at the intersections. They were just seen 00:14:26.620 --> 00:14:30.220 as ugly. So what happened? By 1988, Los Angeles 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:33.519 actually passed an emergency anti -mini mall 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.039 ordinance to ban the construction of new ones. 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:38.179 You know, you've really made it when the city 00:14:38.179 --> 00:14:40.279 government has to pass a law to specifically 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:42.700 stop you from building any more of your product. 00:14:42.899 --> 00:14:45.059 But by then it was too late. The template was 00:14:45.059 --> 00:14:47.840 set. The virus had escaped the lab. The mini 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:50.409 mall had spread to every suburb in America. OK, 00:14:50.450 --> 00:14:52.429 so we've got the history. We've got the construction 00:14:52.429 --> 00:14:54.409 method. Now I want to get inside the machine. 00:14:54.490 --> 00:14:56.210 Let's talk about the anatomy of these places, 00:14:56.309 --> 00:14:58.629 the taxonomy, because it's not just a random 00:14:58.629 --> 00:15:00.710 collection of stores thrown together, is it? 00:15:00.730 --> 00:15:03.389 Oh, no, not at all. It is a very carefully curated 00:15:03.389 --> 00:15:06.809 ecosystem. A successful strip mall is like a 00:15:06.809 --> 00:15:09.610 biological organism. Every single part has a 00:15:09.610 --> 00:15:12.710 very specific function. So let's start with the 00:15:12.710 --> 00:15:15.500 biggest part, the big guy in the corner. The 00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:18.179 anchor. The anchor tenant, yes. In a smaller 00:15:18.179 --> 00:15:20.539 neighborhood center, this is almost always your 00:15:20.539 --> 00:15:23.639 grocery store. In a larger power center, it's 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:27.000 your Target, your Walmart, your Kohl's. The anchor 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:29.700 is the center of gravity for the whole complex. 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:32.340 They're the main draw. They are the only reason 00:15:32.340 --> 00:15:34.879 probably 90 % of the people who enter that parking 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.200 lot are there in the first place. And because 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:39.279 of that, because they have all that power, they 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:41.179 get a special deal on rent, don't they? They 00:15:41.179 --> 00:15:43.879 get a very special deal. Often the anchor pays 00:15:43.879 --> 00:15:47.019 very, very little rent per square foot. Sometimes 00:15:47.019 --> 00:15:49.700 they pay almost no rent at all. In some very 00:15:49.700 --> 00:15:52.320 rare cases, the developer might even pay them 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:54.639 a little bit to be there as an incentive. Wow. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.539 Because without that anchor, the little stores, 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:00.039 the inline stores as they're called, they won't 00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:01.740 sign a lease. It's too risky. So you're telling 00:16:01.740 --> 00:16:04.519 me the dry cleaner, the nail salon, the Chinese 00:16:04.519 --> 00:16:07.240 takeout place, they are effectively subsidizing 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:10.409 the giant grocery store's rent. In a way. Yes, 00:16:10.669 --> 00:16:13.409 they pay a much, much higher rent per square 00:16:13.409 --> 00:16:16.529 foot because what they're really paying for is 00:16:16.529 --> 00:16:20.070 the privilege of drafting, like in a car race, 00:16:20.230 --> 00:16:23.210 off the anchor's foot traffic. They need the 00:16:23.210 --> 00:16:25.350 mom who just went in to buy a gallon of milk 00:16:25.350 --> 00:16:27.610 to walk past their window and realize, oh, yeah, 00:16:27.669 --> 00:16:31.110 I need a manicure or I should drop off this shirt. 00:16:31.250 --> 00:16:33.429 It's the errand economy. You're trying to capture 00:16:33.429 --> 00:16:35.370 the customer while they're already stopped and 00:16:35.370 --> 00:16:37.470 out of their car. That's it. Exactly. And you'll 00:16:37.470 --> 00:16:40.049 notice the mix of those smaller tenants. It's 00:16:40.049 --> 00:16:42.389 almost a formula. You need a morning draw like 00:16:42.389 --> 00:16:45.250 a coffee shop or a donut place. You need an evening 00:16:45.250 --> 00:16:47.570 draw like a pizza place or a Thai restaurant. 00:16:47.750 --> 00:16:49.809 And you need services. You need services that 00:16:49.809 --> 00:16:52.970 require repeat visits, haircuts, nail salons, 00:16:53.009 --> 00:16:55.529 dry cleaning, a laundromat, things you have to 00:16:55.529 --> 00:16:57.850 do every week or every month. I also want to 00:16:57.850 --> 00:16:59.750 ask about those little freestanding buildings 00:16:59.750 --> 00:17:01.889 I always see in the parking lot. They're not 00:17:01.889 --> 00:17:03.629 connected to the main strip. They're usually 00:17:03.629 --> 00:17:07.160 right up against the road. A bank. or a starbucks 00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:09.559 or a mcdonald's those are what the industry calls 00:17:09.559 --> 00:17:12.869 out parcels or pad sites And they are the most 00:17:12.869 --> 00:17:15.369 visible and therefore most valuable spots in 00:17:15.369 --> 00:17:17.750 the entire development. Why more valuable than 00:17:17.750 --> 00:17:19.490 being in the main strip? Because you don't even 00:17:19.490 --> 00:17:21.190 need to turn into the main mall's parking lot 00:17:21.190 --> 00:17:23.349 to see them or access them. They catch the impulse 00:17:23.349 --> 00:17:25.410 driver. They have their own drive thrust. They 00:17:25.410 --> 00:17:27.529 command the absolute highest rent. And what about 00:17:27.529 --> 00:17:30.990 the sign? The big, tall, skinny sign by the road 00:17:30.990 --> 00:17:33.289 with all the logos stacked up on top of each 00:17:33.289 --> 00:17:37.950 other. The pylon sign. Ah, the totem pole of 00:17:37.950 --> 00:17:40.369 suburbia. There's a whole science to that sign. 00:17:40.779 --> 00:17:43.400 The anchor tenant always gets the big top slot 00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:46.099 by contract. The little guys have to fight for 00:17:46.099 --> 00:17:48.079 the smaller slots at the bottom. And it has to 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:50.700 be readable at speed. That is the entire key. 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:53.180 The font size, the color contrast, the spacing, 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:55.740 it's all calculated for a driver moving at 45 00:17:55.740 --> 00:17:58.079 miles per hour to be able to process in about 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:00.460 one and a half seconds. That's aggressive graphic 00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:02.980 design. It has to be. Yeah. If you can't read 00:18:02.980 --> 00:18:05.299 the word PCA in half a second, that business 00:18:05.299 --> 00:18:07.200 is probably going to fail. I want to shift gears 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.039 to the money behind it all again, because there's 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:11.880 a financial term I kept seeing in the research 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:13.859 when people talk about strip malls, and that's 00:18:13.859 --> 00:18:18.440 triple net lease. Ah, yes. The NNN lease. It 00:18:18.440 --> 00:18:20.380 sounds like a wrestling move or something. What 00:18:20.380 --> 00:18:23.259 does it mean and why is it so important to this 00:18:23.259 --> 00:18:26.119 whole model? It's so important because it explains 00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:29.140 why investors absolutely love building and owning 00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:33.170 these... These sometimes ugly things. So in a 00:18:33.170 --> 00:18:35.210 standard lease, like for an apartment, you pay 00:18:35.210 --> 00:18:38.109 your rent. And the landlord uses that money to 00:18:38.109 --> 00:18:40.069 pay the property taxes, the building's insurance, 00:18:40.289 --> 00:18:42.990 and to fix the roof when it leaks. Right. Standard 00:18:42.990 --> 00:18:45.430 landlord stuff. In a commercial triple net lease, 00:18:45.630 --> 00:18:48.329 the tenant, the business owner, pays their base 00:18:48.329 --> 00:18:50.890 rent plus the three nets. Which are? Net one 00:18:50.890 --> 00:18:53.630 is property taxes. Net two is the building insurance. 00:18:54.029 --> 00:18:56.589 And net three is common area maintenance, or 00:18:56.589 --> 00:18:59.480 SAM. Wait a minute. So if the city raises the 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:01.700 property tax on the shopping center, the guy 00:19:01.700 --> 00:19:04.640 who runs the comic book shop has to pay his share 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:07.619 of that increase. Yes. If the parking lot needs 00:19:07.619 --> 00:19:10.140 to be repaved, all the tenants split the bill. 00:19:10.420 --> 00:19:13.119 If the snow needs to be plowed, they pay for 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:15.440 it through their cam charges. The landlord's 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:18.480 income is essentially protected from... all of 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:21.039 those rising operating costs. They just collect 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:22.700 the check. They basically just collect the check. 00:19:22.859 --> 00:19:25.839 It makes owning a strip mall an incredibly passive, 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:28.940 stable and predictable investment, which is why 00:19:28.940 --> 00:19:31.640 they were so popular with wealthy individuals 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:34.539 or big pension funds. So the landlord is essentially 00:19:34.539 --> 00:19:37.500 just owning the dirt and the concrete shell and 00:19:37.500 --> 00:19:39.480 the tenants are the ones actually running and 00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:41.180 maintaining the building. That's a great way 00:19:41.180 --> 00:19:43.420 to put it. And that financial structure, that 00:19:43.420 --> 00:19:46.440 triple net lease is the powerful economic engine 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:48.759 that keeps these things. running, even when they 00:19:48.759 --> 00:19:51.259 start to look a little bit rundown. OK, so this 00:19:51.259 --> 00:19:53.859 brings us to the big elephant in the room, the 00:19:53.859 --> 00:19:56.440 retail apocalypse. I mean, we have been told 00:19:56.440 --> 00:19:59.720 for 15, 20 years now that Amazon is eating the 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:01.839 world. We've all seen pictures of dead enclosed 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:06.460 malls. We saw Toys R Us disappear. Logic would 00:20:06.460 --> 00:20:08.579 dictate that strip malls should be going extinct. 00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:12.019 And yet they're like cockroaches. They just seem 00:20:12.019 --> 00:20:14.039 to survive everything. So let's look at the actual 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:17.109 data. Are they dying or not? The top line numbers 00:20:17.109 --> 00:20:21.069 say, surprisingly, no. Not at all. In 2013, there 00:20:21.069 --> 00:20:24.950 were about 65, 840 strip malls in the U .S. Okay. 00:20:25.109 --> 00:20:28.269 As of early 2024, that number has grown to over 00:20:28.269 --> 00:20:32.089 68 ,000. So we are still adding them to the landscape, 00:20:32.289 --> 00:20:34.829 not subtracting them. But is that the whole story? 00:20:35.250 --> 00:20:37.670 Because I drive past some strip malls that look 00:20:37.670 --> 00:20:40.289 pretty sad. A lot of for lease signs in the windows. 00:20:40.630 --> 00:20:42.029 Right. And this is where we have to be a little 00:20:42.029 --> 00:20:44.710 more nuanced. Because not all strip malls are 00:20:44.710 --> 00:20:47.519 created equal. In real estate, properties are 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:50.380 often graded. Class A, Class B, and Class C. 00:20:50.579 --> 00:20:52.940 Okay, break that down for us. Class A is your 00:20:52.940 --> 00:20:55.220 shiny new power center in an affluent growing 00:20:55.220 --> 00:20:57.900 suburb. It's got a Whole Foods, maybe a Lululemon, 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:00.000 a nice new Target. Those places are booming. 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:03.519 Vacancy rates are practically zero. Landlords 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:05.299 can charge whatever they want. Okay, that makes 00:21:05.299 --> 00:21:08.490 sense. Then you have Class C. That's the unrenovated 00:21:08.490 --> 00:21:11.730 1970s mini mall in a town where the main factory 00:21:11.730 --> 00:21:14.130 just closed down. It's got a dollar store, a 00:21:14.130 --> 00:21:16.890 pawn shop, and a lot of empty storefronts. Those 00:21:16.890 --> 00:21:19.230 are dying. A lot of them are. So when we say 00:21:19.230 --> 00:21:21.849 strip malls are surviving, we really mean that 00:21:21.849 --> 00:21:24.529 well -located strip malls with the right tenant 00:21:24.529 --> 00:21:28.059 mix are evolving and thriving. Precisely. And 00:21:28.059 --> 00:21:29.859 it comes right back to that tenant mix we talked 00:21:29.859 --> 00:21:31.980 about before. You can't get a haircut on the 00:21:31.980 --> 00:21:33.720 Internet. Right. You can't get your clothes dry 00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:36.480 cleaned on Amazon. The tenants that are succeeding 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:39.940 are the Internet -proof tenants. Gyms, urgent 00:21:39.940 --> 00:21:43.119 care clinics, nail salons, restaurants, vets. 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:46.089 These are all experiential. You have to physically 00:21:46.089 --> 00:21:48.970 be there. So the big enclosed malls that sold, 00:21:49.029 --> 00:21:50.670 you know, clothes and books and electronics, 00:21:50.849 --> 00:21:52.490 they are the ones getting killed by online shopping. 00:21:52.569 --> 00:21:54.670 Exactly. But the humble strip mall that sells 00:21:54.670 --> 00:21:57.250 services and convenience, it's actually surprisingly 00:21:57.250 --> 00:21:59.569 insulated from that. I've also noticed something 00:21:59.569 --> 00:22:01.829 else that's kind of weird. I am starting to see 00:22:01.829 --> 00:22:04.049 brands that were born on the Internet opening 00:22:04.049 --> 00:22:07.269 physical stores in strip malls. I saw Warby Parker 00:22:07.269 --> 00:22:10.369 in a strip mall the other day. Yes. The clicks 00:22:10.369 --> 00:22:12.769 to bricks phenomenon. It's called the halo effect. 00:22:13.410 --> 00:22:16.490 It turns out. If you are a big online brand, 00:22:16.789 --> 00:22:20.349 opening a physical store actually lowers your 00:22:20.349 --> 00:22:22.670 online customer acquisition cost. How does that 00:22:22.670 --> 00:22:24.490 work? People see the sign when they're driving 00:22:24.490 --> 00:22:26.950 to the grocery store. It builds brand awareness. 00:22:27.089 --> 00:22:30.390 They can go in and touch the product. And crucially, 00:22:30.529 --> 00:22:32.910 they can return items in person, which saves 00:22:32.910 --> 00:22:34.809 the company a fortune in reverse shipping fees. 00:22:35.190 --> 00:22:38.069 So now these cool, hip, digital native brands 00:22:38.069 --> 00:22:41.250 are fighting for space in strip malls right next 00:22:41.250 --> 00:22:43.420 to the dry cleaner. So in a strange way, the 00:22:43.420 --> 00:22:45.579 strip mall is becoming the physical interface 00:22:45.579 --> 00:22:48.599 for the Internet? It is, in a way. It's the fulfillment 00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:50.400 center that you can actually walk into. It's 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:52.519 a key part of the modern logistics chain. I want 00:22:52.519 --> 00:22:54.339 to zoom out now, literally out of the country, 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:56.819 because we think of this form, this architecture, 00:22:56.900 --> 00:23:01.160 as pure Americana. But did we export this model? 00:23:01.339 --> 00:23:04.740 Do they have strip malls in, say, Europe? Yes 00:23:04.740 --> 00:23:07.519 and no. I'd say it's a case of same hardware, 00:23:07.700 --> 00:23:09.640 different software. Let's take the U .K. and 00:23:09.640 --> 00:23:11.259 Ireland as an example. Okay, what do they call 00:23:11.259 --> 00:23:13.400 them there? They're known as retail parks or 00:23:13.400 --> 00:23:15.779 sometimes retail outlets. And if you look at 00:23:15.779 --> 00:23:18.059 them, they look very similar. Big box stores, 00:23:18.220 --> 00:23:21.619 lots of parking right in the front. But the context, 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:24.319 the role they play in the society is totally 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:27.579 different. How so? Well, in the U .S., for many, 00:23:27.660 --> 00:23:30.519 many suburbs, the strip mall is the town center. 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:33.299 It's the only commercial hub. In the U .K., you 00:23:33.299 --> 00:23:36.579 have these ancient, historic town centers, the 00:23:36.579 --> 00:23:38.960 high street, with narrow cobblestone streets 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:41.839 and buildings from the 1600s. Which are beautiful 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:44.440 but terrible for cars. Absolutely terrible for 00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:46.960 cars. You can't park a Range Rover in a medieval 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:49.319 village. Many of them are pedestrianized now. 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:51.759 So the retail parks get pushed to the absolute 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:53.900 edge of town out by the motorway. So they're 00:23:53.900 --> 00:23:56.160 not integrated into the community. Not at all. 00:23:56.259 --> 00:23:58.539 They're strictly utilitarian. You drive out there 00:23:58.539 --> 00:24:00.900 to go to the big hardware store or to buy bulk 00:24:00.900 --> 00:24:03.619 pet food, but you don't hang out there. The social 00:24:03.619 --> 00:24:06.480 life, the cafes, the pubs, that all stays in 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:08.220 the historic high street. So they've managed 00:24:08.220 --> 00:24:10.559 to separate the chore shopping from the leisure 00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:12.940 and social shopping. For the most part, yes. 00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:16.180 Whereas in many American suburbs, the strip mall 00:24:16.180 --> 00:24:18.319 has to be all of those things. It's the only 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:20.420 place to go. And what about Australia? I got 00:24:20.420 --> 00:24:22.160 really confused reading the notes on this one. 00:24:22.500 --> 00:24:24.700 Australia is a linguistic trap for Americans. 00:24:25.559 --> 00:24:27.799 If an Australian says they're going to the strip 00:24:27.799 --> 00:24:30.660 shops, they are not talking about a place with 00:24:30.660 --> 00:24:33.279 a big parking lot. What are they talking about 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:35.960 then? They are talking about a traditional main 00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:38.930 street. A line of shops built right up to the 00:24:38.930 --> 00:24:41.569 sidewalk with parking on the street. It's what 00:24:41.569 --> 00:24:43.910 we would call a traditional downtown. So the 00:24:43.910 --> 00:24:46.130 complete opposite of our definition of a strip 00:24:46.130 --> 00:24:48.089 mall. The exact opposite. If you want to find 00:24:48.089 --> 00:24:51.390 a U .S. style car oriented strip mall in, say, 00:24:51.410 --> 00:24:53.309 Sydney, you're looking for something they call 00:24:53.309 --> 00:24:56.390 a homemaker center. or a big box complex. But 00:24:56.390 --> 00:24:58.430 their planning laws are generally much stricter. 00:24:58.549 --> 00:25:01.150 They really try to protect their local high street 00:25:01.150 --> 00:25:03.750 strips from being cannibalized by the big out 00:25:03.750 --> 00:25:05.990 of town boxes. It really seems like most of the 00:25:05.990 --> 00:25:08.509 world sort of tolerates the strip mall as a necessary 00:25:08.509 --> 00:25:12.109 evil for car culture, whereas America didn't 00:25:12.109 --> 00:25:14.950 just tolerate it. We embraced it as a lifestyle. 00:25:15.190 --> 00:25:18.170 That's a very fair assessment. In America, we 00:25:18.170 --> 00:25:21.680 zoned for it. We made it the law. In many U .S. 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:24.079 cities for a very long time, it was actually 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:26.440 illegal to build anything else in commercial 00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:29.319 zones. What do you mean illegal? I mean zoning 00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:32.380 codes that mandated huge setbacks from the road. 00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:36.440 They mandated minimum parking requirements. So 00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:39.079 many spaces per thousand square feet of retail. 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:41.799 You had to build a sea of asphalt. It was impossible 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:45.039 to build a traditional walkable main street. 00:25:45.339 --> 00:25:48.119 We legislated the ugliness into existence. That 00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:50.180 was a very depressing thought. We mandated the 00:25:50.180 --> 00:25:52.920 beige stucco box. We prioritized the efficient 00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:55.259 flow of automobile traffic over creating any 00:25:55.259 --> 00:25:57.839 real sense of place. And we're living with the 00:25:57.839 --> 00:26:00.180 consequences of that today. So on that note, 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:02.779 let's look to the future. We have, what, 68 ,000 00:26:02.779 --> 00:26:04.519 of these things in the country? That's millions 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:06.559 of acres of asphalt. We know retail is still 00:26:06.559 --> 00:26:09.019 changing. We know there's a massive housing crisis. 00:26:09.819 --> 00:26:12.220 What happens to the strip mall in, say, 2050? 00:26:12.579 --> 00:26:14.319 This is actually the most exciting part of the 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:16.460 story for urban planners right now. We are seeing 00:26:16.460 --> 00:26:19.059 the slow rise of what's called retrofitting suburbia. 00:26:19.539 --> 00:26:21.359 Retrofitting? What does that look like in practice? 00:26:21.799 --> 00:26:24.180 Well, just look at the asset. You've got a huge 00:26:24.180 --> 00:26:26.660 flat piece of land. It's usually on a main bus 00:26:26.660 --> 00:26:28.940 or transit line. It already has all the utility 00:26:28.940 --> 00:26:32.220 hookups, water, sewer, electricity. In a dense 00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:34.980 city, that is development gold. So you tear down 00:26:34.980 --> 00:26:37.099 the old Target and build apartment buildings? 00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:40.200 Sometimes. Or, even more interestingly, you build 00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:42.279 apartments on top of the existing parking lot. 00:26:42.700 --> 00:26:45.380 You turn that single -story sprawl into a multi 00:26:45.380 --> 00:26:47.779 -story mixed -use village. So you keep the shocks? 00:26:48.059 --> 00:26:49.980 You keep the retail on the ground floor. You 00:26:49.980 --> 00:26:51.700 put the parking into a more efficient garage 00:26:51.700 --> 00:26:54.000 structure instead of a surface lot. And then 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:57.059 you build five or six stories of apartments or 00:26:57.059 --> 00:26:58.980 condos on top of it all. So you're basically 00:26:58.980 --> 00:27:01.180 taking the strip mall and trying to turn it back 00:27:01.180 --> 00:27:03.779 into a traditional town center. Exactly. We're 00:27:03.779 --> 00:27:06.640 seeing this all over. It's called grayfield redevelopment, 00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:10.160 turning these dying asphalt fields back into 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:13.299 walkable, livable neighborhoods. It's closing 00:27:13.299 --> 00:27:15.849 the historical circle. We went from walkable 00:27:15.849 --> 00:27:19.710 towns to drivable strips, and now we are spending 00:27:19.710 --> 00:27:22.410 billions of dollars trying to engineer the walkability 00:27:22.410 --> 00:27:24.990 back in. But that's for the dying ones, the Class 00:27:24.990 --> 00:27:27.769 C ones. What about the successful Class A power 00:27:27.769 --> 00:27:30.710 centers? They will likely stay the same for a 00:27:30.710 --> 00:27:33.589 very long time. As long as the majority of us 00:27:33.589 --> 00:27:35.650 drive cars, as long as we live in low -density 00:27:35.650 --> 00:27:38.849 suburbs, the sheer efficiency of that L -shaped 00:27:38.849 --> 00:27:42.420 lot with parking in front is unbeatable. Is the 00:27:42.420 --> 00:27:44.420 pantry of the suburbs. The pantry of the suburbs. 00:27:44.519 --> 00:27:46.400 I like that. Yeah. And you don't renovate your 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:48.720 pantry to look like a. museum or a beautiful 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:50.700 living room. You keep it organized and efficient 00:27:50.700 --> 00:27:52.819 so you can get in, grab the cereal and get out. 00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:55.240 That's its function. That is a perfect analogy. 00:27:55.460 --> 00:27:57.359 It's not supposed to be beautiful. It's a machine 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:00.859 for living. It is. So we've gone from the 1920s 00:28:00.859 --> 00:28:04.160 drive -in markets to the concrete tilt -up boxes 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:07.000 of the 1970s oil crisis, all the way through 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:09.819 the supposed retail apocalypse, and now into 00:28:09.819 --> 00:28:12.740 a potential future as the foundation for new 00:28:12.740 --> 00:28:14.880 housing. It's a lot of history and a lot of economic 00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:16.900 power for a place where you just go to buy socks. 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:19.819 and milk. Okay, so here is my challenge to you, 00:28:19.880 --> 00:28:21.859 the listener. The next time you pull into that 00:28:21.859 --> 00:28:23.259 spot, and you know the one I'm talking about, 00:28:23.339 --> 00:28:25.119 right in front of the pizza place where the pavement 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:27.859 is a little uneven, don't just rush in. Just 00:28:27.859 --> 00:28:30.279 take five seconds, sit in your car, and look. 00:28:30.380 --> 00:28:32.799 Look at the pylon sign. Look at the simple concrete 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:35.839 walls. Notice where the anchor tenant is. Notice 00:28:35.839 --> 00:28:38.480 how the cars flow through the lot. Notice the 00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:41.319 little pad sites out by the road. And just realize 00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:43.720 that you are standing in a perfectly evolved 00:28:44.779 --> 00:28:48.180 economic habitat it might not be pretty but it 00:28:48.180 --> 00:28:51.200 is a survivor it has outlasted so many other 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:53.299 forms of retail and architecture and it's probably 00:28:53.299 --> 00:28:55.460 going to outlive all of us and here's the final 00:28:55.460 --> 00:28:57.579 thought i want to leave you with we've established 00:28:57.579 --> 00:29:00.539 that this thing is maybe the most resilient form 00:29:00.539 --> 00:29:03.259 of architecture we have but it's an architecture 00:29:03.259 --> 00:29:06.990 built entirely around the car So what happens, 00:29:07.009 --> 00:29:09.230 maybe not in our lifetimes, but someday, if we 00:29:09.230 --> 00:29:12.470 move away from personal car ownership? What happens 00:29:12.470 --> 00:29:15.609 to these 68 ,000 L -shaped lots when the cars 00:29:15.609 --> 00:29:19.190 are gone? That's a great question. On that note, 00:29:19.230 --> 00:29:21.009 thanks for taking this deep dive with us. My 00:29:21.009 --> 00:29:22.410 pleasure. See you next time.