Some have become community, social service and day care centers; others offices, restaurants, shops, warehouses, spas and in a particularly notorious instance, that of the Limelight, a disco.
But it is chasing a fast-moving target.What quickens hearts in Bentonville, Walmart's headquarters, is the idea of pulling together shops, warehouses, delivery fleets and technology into "market ecosystems" that no one else can match.
Prior to its rezoning in the early 1990s, the neighborhood was commercial, filled with auto-body shops, warehouses and small offices on lots where there are now loft-style condominium buildings designed to retain some of the area's industrial character.
More than three dozen others — meat wholesale companies, auto body shops, restaurants, construction supply stores, tire repair shops, warehouses and a window manufacturer among them — have sold their property to Columbia and have agreed to leave once construction begins.
Councils are drawing up emergency plans to teach children in disused shops, warehouses, magistrates' courts and vacant office blocks as a population surge triggers a severe shortage of primary school places.
With his government jolted by the scenes of young people looting and setting fire to shops, warehouses, vehicles and police stations, he spoke with an angry vehemence that conveyed a sense that his government had settled on an unyielding crackdown, shorn of the kind of exculpatory language that British politicians have often used when confronted with youth disorder.
The concessionary could now also expropriate land for shops, warehouses and housing for employees.
Across the country, police raided corner shops, warehouses, and retail outlets including HMV looking for filth.
