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It is really tough to be commercial real estate right now, Casa Grande is a sprawling small city but there are vacant communities everywhere. Home builders who went bankrupt leave dozens of acres of unfinished models, homes and vacant lots littering the city everywhere. There are entire shopping plaza’s complete and vacant with “For Lease” signs all over the windows.
You can actually go down some streets and stare at these things and feel almost as if you are in a Ghost Town, where there are literally dozens of homes with no residents, dozens of commercial buildings with no tenants or stores. All of this wasted building space, some of it is prime property in good well trafficked areas too.
I am sure it is like this all over the country, but in Phoenix since most of the building are established, there isn’t the vast expanse of abandoned buildings and homes like there is in a smaller city. I hope over the next few years more business take the chance and try to pick up in the area. Some do really well, others shut down within 6 months or a year, one such example is that there used to be 2 restaurants that served Greek Style food, and both have shut down in a year or less.
Everywhere feels the economic downturn, but this city it is very visible on the street corners of nearly every street and every residential community.
-Justin Germino