Walmarts To Close, Can This Help With Housing?

By PATRICK LAVERY As the retail giant Walmart makes news with their plans to close underperforming locations, urban designers see an opportunity to discuss repurposing retail properties. A recent Nexstar Media wire report confirmed that despite a strong holiday shopping season to end 2022, Walmart was preparing to close seven stores in three states – including three in Illinois, all in the Chicagoland vicinity. The big box giant referred to these locations, also in Arkansas, Florida, New Mexico, and Wisconsin, as “underperforming.” One of them, in Lincolnwood, Ill., was a pickup and delivery-only store that opened in 2019. While that kind of model made sense during the retail restrictions of the Covid pandemic, it seems to be one that Walmart…