Another solution for those empty malls: charter schools

We’ve all seen the headlines — the shopping mall as we know it is dying.

The retail vacancy rate was ~10.3% in Q4 of 2023 and the pandemic, changing consumer habits, and store closures have been nails in the mall’s coffin.

But now, a new use case might give old malls a new lease on life. Landlords are leasing mall space to charter schools, per The New York Times.

While at first a charter school and a shopping mall seem like an unlikely fit, the symbiotic partnership might solve a bunch of problems:

• It revitalizes empty malls, keeping the lights on, literally and financially, while bringing in foot traffic for remaining businesses.
• Schools get large blank canvases to make their own in locations that are often centrally located. Plus, moving into a mall is cheaper than building a school from scratch.

The arrangement can also be good for communities, bringing new educational opportunities to kids in the area — and, in turn, building a good reputation for the mall.

New mall of America?

Repurposing malls as schools has been done before. As we said, malls have been going down the tubes for a while.

And developers are entertaining their options when it comes to filling empty malls: we’ve written about malls welcoming tenants from pickleball courts and bumper cars to government offices and healthcare facilities.

The sheer size of old malls means the possibilities are, seemingly, endless. Footprints spanning hundreds of thousands of square feet have the potential to hold everything a community needs, if done correctly.

Our word of caution: No matter what happens, keep the food court.