IPFS News Link • Government Debt & Financing
Dying Malls Increasingly Rely On Taxpayer Handouts For Survival
• zerohedge.com by Tyler DurdenHere's just a small sampling of the recent carnage:
America's Desperate Mall Owners Turn To Grocers, Doctors & High Schools To Fill Empty Space
Failing Malls Turn Empty Parking Lots Into Carnivals To Generate Cash
But, as Bloomberg points out today, one other funding source is increasingly emerging as a key financial sponsor in the efforts of commercial REITs to re-purpose their failing assets: taxpayers.
In Brookfield, Wisconsin, for example, the city is using tax-increment financing (TIF), a common tool for municipalities to subsidize development by putting property taxes from new projects into a fund that pays for building cost, to help rebuild the Brookfield Square Mall. Meanwhile, as if that weren't enough, the city has also agreed to pay for remediation costs related an old Sears auto repair shop and to build a new convention center and hotel where the Sears once stood.