Lots of Space Available for this Clearance Sale

Hey, buddy, can you spare an acre?

Down here in Fort Pierce, huge swaths of real-estate along U.S. 1 languish where car dealers once thrived. Ditto for other cities across Florida.

The automotive clear-out isn't surprising, given the contraction of the car industry.

"The number of existing auto sales facilities nationwide is based on a national annual sales rate of 16 million vehicles; sales in 2009 dropped to 10.4 million vehicles, the lowest in nearly 30 years," writes David Waite in the Los Angeles Business Journal.

"Even before the onset of the recession, the auto sales industry was overbuilt and overfacilitized. Add to this the change in how people buy cars and ratcheted-up credit standards and it is unlikely, even when the economy recovers, that we will see many of these vacated dealerships put back to use by new car dealers."

Waite and other land-use experts like him suggest that with a little flexibility and creativity, these asphalt stretches could be put to use as transportation hubs, infill development or various mixed-use projects...when the economy comes back, that is.