Signs and portents!

On my way home from the office, I stopped by the Micro Center in Santa Clara.

It's closed.

Note on the door says they couldn't negotiate an extension to their lease on economically viable terms, or something to that effect.

So... landlord wanted more rent?  Or, Micro Center wanted the rent lowered because, what with the recession and all, business had fallen off?

If the former, good luck finding a replacement tenant.

Actually, this could be one little piece of a debt-driven circling-the-drain effect.

That shopping center is only a few years old.  Could be, the owner is still massively in debt for the land and construction, and lowering rents in recessionary times simply isn't an option.

And so retail businesses leave, and buildings stand empty, and rent isn't paid, and... maybe, once the dust settles, the bank ends up owning a derelict shopping center?

All speculation on my part, of course, but it's one more plausible way for debt to make life difficult: when you're on the treadmill, you just can't adjust to the times.

Comments

[Brad J]

More than just a few years old - it was there before I tried to move out of the SFBA in 2000, and I think it was there when my wife was working at Great America in '96 and '97.

To be honest, I'm surprised they lasted this long - they always seemed like an afterthought place to go, a fallback to Fry's and Central Computers for when you need it faster than Amazon or Newegg can ship it to you. (That said, I just bought a hard drive there last week - Fry's was out of 1TB laptop drives - so it's a bit disconcerting.)