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Wal-Mart finds new uses for vacant buildings.

Article Excerpt
For months, and even years in some cases, they looked sad and abandoned, a sore thumb on the heavy hand of an economic downturn: Wal-Marts that formerly housed the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer's boxy-looking junior stores before Supercenters came into vogue.

Today, Wal-Mart Real Estate is ramping up efforts to redevelop a big chunk of available real estate in Mississippi, and communities have delighted in seeing old sites redeveloped into a variety of uses.

"Wal-Mart's move to redevelop its properties mirrors the trend of other chain stores that are feeling a little pressure," said Bob Malone, president of Acme Realty in Meridian, where an old Wal-Mart was torn down to make room for Sam's Club. "Maybe we're entering a business cycle where people are going to be a little more aware of what's left behind, and communities are probably going to be looking at that before being willing to make infrastructure improvements."

Two years ago, through Louisiana-based Stirling Properties, Brooks Holstein helped handle the single largest Wal-Mart assignment, which included 14 buildings in Mississippi.

"Right now, Wal-Mart has about 60 million square feet of vacant space in America," said Holstein, now a partner of Covington, La.-based Combest Properties, LLC. "Wal-Mart has determined that the life cycle of an existing location, because of store size, population...

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