I hadn’t checked out any of the FastCompany.TV ScobleShows. The one that caught my eye is below and features a tour and some extensive interviews with various Rackspace higher ups as they tour and discuss their reasoning for taking over an abandoned mall and making it into a new high tech data center. What I found most fascinating wasn’t the “tech” angle of this, rather the longer term implications for urban blight and revitalization.
The quick summary is that due to the cheap lease price, mall architecture (it’s a big box that was designed to be gutted and split up), and electricity pricing in the area what was a massive eyesore and huge problem is suddenly a revitalizing force bringing 1400 tech jobs into the area.
Rolling Acres Mall in Akron Ohio (the mall I went to growing up) suffered a similar fate to the San Antonio mall described in the video. It slowly became a ghost town of crappy shops selling jewelry that was nearly gold and for some reason an inordinate number of storefront churches. Outwardly at least it would be a good candidate for a similar conversion: cheap electricity from the Perry Nuclear Power Plant, close proximity to the University of Akron, and at this point Akron would probably pay somebody to occupy the building.
WHAT TO DO NOW?