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Comment by xnyan | Hacker News Reader

In college, I pulled a gas line through 30 feet of existing retail space at this very mall for a retrofit asian bistro. It's an absolute dump, no natural light, sprawling and fundematly unfixable early 80s bad mall architecture.

I have a friend who lives across the street from Epic's existing HQ. It looks like a fun-looking building to work in, I have a hard time imagining Cary Towne Center not being a downgrade no matter how much cash you throw at renovation. Just getting the all-permeating smell of stale roasted popcorn out of the concrete is going to take a small fortune.

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You say "no matter how much cash you throw at renovation", but I think you may be underestimating just how much Fortnite alone makes, apparently in 2019, Fortnite brought in revenues of $1.8 billion. With costs of labor in NC, I'm betting they're feeling pretty confident about the renovation.

In 2020, Epic's revenues were somewhere above $4 billion.

I'm sure they got that mall really, really cheap. Here's the current store list.[1] They're down to 22 small tenants, including the co-working space and the model train club.

[1]https://www.shopcarytownecentermall.com/directory

They're pushing out a model train club? That's full moustache-twirling evil.

Serious pivot: there are a lot of hobby, public-service, and charitable organizations which could use permanent, cheap space with minimal features: woodworking and craft groups, maker spaces, library branches, model train clubs, indoor community gardening, political party offices, various service organizations. Why is there no efficient strategy to get them into the large number of empty mall spaces?

> Why is there no efficient strategy to get them into the large number of empty mall spaces?

That's not uncommon, it's just that it usually presages the malls being sold and torn down because they aren't earning any money.

I've seen a $95 million figure reported for Epic's purchase. They're buying it from a group who picked it up in 2019 for $31.5 million after IKEA cancelled plans to build a store there.

"no natural light" -- don't most indoor malls have lots of skylights? I suppose that's only in the common/transit areas and not in the shops (where offices are)?

So, fun story. I did not know this at the time, but I then (and now to much lesser degree) had pretty significant sensory overload/over-sensitivity issues particularly with light. I vividly remember being taken to Cary Town Center by my parents and for some reason feeling an overwhelming sense of relief, though I did not understand why at the time. Going back as an adult, I realized it's because the place was a freaking cave.

I think even mid 80-90s malls had much more natural light, but Cary Towne Center was built in 79 and I think even if they turned the roof into a sheet of plexiglass that the layout would keep large sections dark. The food court for example is on the first floor and is lined with shops, preventing easy windows of any kind.

Maybe they can use a series of mirrors?

My recollection of that mall is that if you're more than 30 feet from an entrance, you'll be completely unaware that there's a thunderstorm going on outside unless it knocks out power. However, Google Earth does seem to show skylights through some of the major walkways and one of the larger stores, plus the food court. They didn't accomplish much.

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