A glut of new shopping centers in Chandler, Ariz., along side the well-documented slowdown in the retail sector has created a conundrum. There are too many retail properties and not enough shopping activity to sustain them. One solution? Demolition. That's what local developer Michael Pollack suggested over the weekend.
"Probably its highest and best use today would be to reinvent it as some form of high-density residential," Pollack said. The largely vacant East Valley Mall on the northwestern corner of Arizona Avenue and Warner Roads is the poster child for retail blight.That center is a candidate for high-density housing, Pollack said.
Another spot ripe for reuse is the vacant building formerly occupied by Food for Less next to the East Valley Mall.
Pollack, who owns more than a dozen shopping centers in Chandler, said none of his centers are candidates for mixed-use projects, but that his land on two corners at Alma School and Pecos could be mixed-use.
"Chandler doesn't need four more corners of retail at that particular intersection."