In the 1980s, shopping malls were the go-to destination, but a glut of building, the rise in online shopping and weakened anchor department stores had already chipped away at that heyday, a pace quickened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For a long time now, one of my comments to audiences that I give speeches on this is to say we’re not overbuilt, we’re under demolished,” said R. Michael Goman, a principal at Goman + York, the East Hartford commercial real estate advisory firm, said. “We have to take some of this stuff down or it’s got to be converted to other uses.