I'm thinking of opening up a business at a mall that has a 16.4% vacancy rate?

Is that a bad sign? Does anyone know anything about vacancy rates, and what is considered good/bad? Thanks.

Its not horrible but thats not great. What you need to ask is what is the traffic? The reason I ask this is because you might have 2 major ancors that take up 50% of the mall. So the other 50% means there might be a 40% vacancy rate, which is horrible. What is the vacancy rate besides the mall ancors? thats the question you want to know. If its 16% that is still high, but if that number jumps to 30-40% its not good.

Ask about mall traffic, how many people a day. You might have a dead mall and nordstorms is thriving, but nobody goes through the mall. I suggest. Getting a cup of joe and sit in the mall for 2-3 hours a couple times a day.

What is the traffic? How many people would actually walk by your shop? Most will walk in because they are walking from one ancor to another or to the food court. Its very difficult, I would spend alot of time looking at this. But I would definately get the numbers of vacancy minus the major ancors, that will tell you more.

This could be good for you, if you can negotiate a better lease for your particular line of business than you could at a more expensive higher trafficked mall. However, this is very dependent on your business, where you will need to be located for the traffic, and whether the high vacancy is due to tenants being mistreated or being charged unfairly by the mall management, or whether it's an icky mall, or there's a more trafficked nicer mall down the road.

Look at your marketing plan and business plan to see whether this mall is right for you.

The vacancy rate itself is irrelevant if it is the right location for you to optimize your customer flow and net income.