Yesterday as I was driving by Buckingham Square in Aurora (Mississippi and Havana) I wondered what would happen to the old mall now that Dillard's has moved to Aurora Town Center.  It looked like the ghost of shopping centers past with an empty parking lot and just a few stores still open.

Today we learn that a mixed use retail-housing development will be built with large stores, specialty shops, restaurants -- very much wanted by the community -- and likely rental housing.  It remains to be seen what form it will take.  Will it look like the development at I-225 and Alameda Parkway -- Aurora City Place, also developed by Miller Weingarten Realty LLC, an Englewood firm?  Or will it look like Belmar on West Alameda and Wadsworth, the redeveloped site of Lakewood's old Villa Italia mall?  Or maybe City Center in Englewood, the redeveloped Cindarella City mall?

Open air retail shopping areas are the 21st century's replacement for shopping malls built in the 1950s and -60s.  Lots of space for walking and gathering, while still making space available for parking.