Blockbusted: A tale of three cities

It's no longer front page news that Blockbuster, the once high-flying video content retailer founded in Dallas in 1985 and nurtured to national prominence by investor Wayne Huizenga, is on the ropes, having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a couple of months ago.

In the areas that I frequent, there are at least three closed Blockbuster outlets, victims of a myriad of factors, probably including a flawed business plan/debt/inertia, changing technology delivery channels (NetFlix, FiOS, U-Verse), and competition from kiosks (RedBox) as well as traditional rental stores (Family Video).

What's interesting to me is to see how the market absorbs the detritus of the vacated retail spaces, almost always well-located.  Here are three:

This location, the most recently closed, remains vacant.  In a retail center anchored by a Kroger grocery, two banks, and a fast food establishment, it's probably going to be a bit difficult to fill, if for no other reason than that its visibility is not so good as the other locations.  (Fun trivia: The property is represented by the Makens Company.  I rode in a carpool to prep school with Jim Makens in the 5th and 6th grades.)

Notwithstanding my neo-Puritanical disapproval of the Toys for ----- retailer on the left (Oils, Gifts, Lingerie - "Uh, yeah, what do you have in a semi-synthetic 5W-30?"), I'm sure the landlord is tickled (no, the pun is unintentional, sort of) to have repurposed this space in a fairly short time.

Now, here's the home run:

This store, in a retail center anchored by an Albertson's, and several fast food outlets, benefitted from a bold new façade, and in under three months was fully redeployed with two solid tenants.

I think I'm hungry...