by Calculated Risk on 2/15/2010 12:20:00 AM

Here is a solution for some of the vacant retail space ...

From the Columbus Dispatch: Razing cuts retail vacancy rate

Fewer storefronts were empty last year in Columbus than the year before, but only because two white-elephant malls were torn down ... The demolition of the Columbus City Center mall Downtown and Consumer Square East in the Brice Road area took 1.1 million square feet of empty retail space out of the market. That cut retail vacancies to 15.1 percent in 2009 from 16.9 percent in 2008.

That helped a little, but the forecast is for the vacancy rate to stay in the 14% to 15% range through 2012. Maybe they can demolish a few more malls ...