Vacant places

There's a crap ton of vacant buildings around here.
It's really starting to concern me
And it made me wonder - why?
Is there some sort of tax incentive on these landowners to not rent out their storefronts?
Wouldn't it be better for the long term health of their business to have some small business filling that space for less than ideal rent, rather than it rotting away?

Make it make sense.

Thanks.

 

commercial real estate has bottomed out.
some of these places have been empty for years.

however, often the incentive is that they are a tax write-off.

 

Both.
The residential real estate appears to be mostly seasonally occupied, as would be expected in Florida. People come out for the winter but the rest of the year they keep the hurricane shutters on.

 

Commercial real estate is in a very odd spot and Retail is in even worse position

there is so much inventory for retail, commercial, and luxe rentals. There's no penalty to warehouse space if you can afford to keep it empty. Some places like NYC are considering some sort of tax for not renting it because holding out for the market rate rent is causing lots of this scarcity for certain small businesses. We can see these small businesses in holiday villages and other seasonal markets.

Everything else is making money so some companies use the empty to be the offset for taxation and so companies again have little to no incentive to lower the rents.

Part of the reason the see through is present for so long is that many businesses displaced by the growth of Walmart and Amazon.