A standard storefront lease is for 10 years. If you believe you can get 12% higher rent by waiting for a year, it's worthwhile to leave the space empty.
What I don't get is why there aren't more fun pop-up shops appearing in these spaces?
What I don't get is why there aren't more fun pop-up shops appearing in these spaces?
An interesting comment that dovetails nicely with this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16002397 :
Seems simple to fix. A building sitting vacant is depressing everything around it, pushing an external cost onto the city.
Leave it vacant and your property taxes triple to offset this cost.
Such a policy would probably need fine-tuning (e.g. what is the optimal number of months before taxes kick in, what is the optimal rate schedule, etc.), but it seems reasonable on its face.
Certainly as a residential renter for ~12 years (in the same areas that have high vacancies) I haven't seen a rent increase like that.
The answer is probably that Apple has a clause in the contract that says that if you give another client a better price than you gave Apple, Apple gets to renegotiate.
If you got a particularly good rent from Apple, it's probably better to leave the place beside completely empty.