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There is an implicit assumption of substitutability of land use in this conversion that is interesting whether it holds or not:

People are not exactly asked to live in a parking lot but no matter how much you invest on specific grounds, you cannot redevelop the entire environs of the "mall area" which are typically in commercial zones not exactly designed for people to live in.

Hence it is plausible that these redevelopments will end up being undesirable, low cost housing that will be occupied by those have to be there rather than want to be there (unable to afford something more "residential").

Essentially a downgrade option for the increasingly tenuous "middle class"