[PoshSteve]

While not exactly existing retail space being turned into distribution centers, we've seen 3 full malls in Cleveland be demolished and Amazon centers built on the sites. First was the Euclid Square mall to the northeast of the city in 2018, then the Randall Park mall to the southeast (once the largest mall in the country) a few months later. Construction on the site of the former Rolling Acres mall, famous for it's snow covered escalators in dead mall lore, is finishing up now. It's still rumored that the Midway mall in Elyria (west of the city) will be the next Amazon site. Each of these have added close to the amount of jobs that the malls themselves previously employed, and we are already seeing spinoff development around them. Cleveland really lucked out with our Amazon fulfillment centers. All of them have been blighted brownfield redevelopment in in inner suburban areas (as well as two new builds finishing up in Cleveland proper), instead of the exurban greenfield development that seems to be the norm.

Have we learned about over retailing ourselves to prevent these dead malls in the future though? Of course not. A new mall/lifestyle center, Pinecrest, just opened up 2 miles away from the old Randall Park mall (and 3 miles from Beachwood Place mall and half mile from Eton)...