@Twoflower probably correctly guessed that the Shell is subsidized apartments.
I can think of two locations in the rural part of the state I live in that have had multiple restaurants operating in them over 40+ years.
One has had at least 12 different owners. It has been one time or another been a classic diner(three times), a Chinese restaurant, an Italian restaurant, a seafood restaurant, a steakhouse, a BBQ restaurant (twice), and a bar/pub (three times). It is currently vacant but someone did buy the property a few months ago. Maybe they will put a Mexican place in!!
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Restaurants are a different story. Usually when a restaurant fails, it’s not because it’s a bad site for a restaurant; it’s because the restaurant owner was lousy at business. A lot of restaurants are started because someone’s a good cook and people tell them they should start a restaurant, but just being a good cook isn’t enough. And even outside of owner/chef situations, they’re a popular choice for people looking to start a first business.
Most restaurants fail within a year or two, but the ones that are successful tend to last for many decades (usually, until the original owner retires, and sometimes for multiple generations). So it’s normal to see a long string of failed restaurants in a location, before you get the one that finally lasts.
I agree with you, but there is a location a few blocks from where I live that’s where restaurants go to die.
In addition to what others have said about restaurant failures , sometimes the restaurant didn’t fail. It is very common in my neighborhood for certain types of restaurants to change the name/owner every few years. Not because the business failed, but they are the type of restaurant where the owner works crazy hours and after a few years they either sell the restaurant and open a different sort of business or sell the restaurant and retire.
Yeah I have seen this mindset in acquaintances and relatives where someone has passion(or obsession?) about running a business working crazy long hours and ending running employees off because they do NOT seem to understand most people just want to work a 9 to 5 job, get paid, and not think about in their OFF hours. And they end having to shut down because they cannot find people to work them.
And then they complain how no one wants work hard anymore when the truth is people don’t mind working hard–they just don’t want to be worked to death by obsessed boss.
I’m not talking about the owners expecting the employees to work crazy hours - I’m talking about owners who don’t trust anyone to manage the place so the owner is there every single minute the business is open even though different employees are working at breakfast and dinner. That can be a lot more hours in a restaurant or convenience store than at a drycleaner.
There’s a gas station I know of that has been vacant for over 20 years. It wasn’t a failed business. What happened was that there are train tracks that pass under that intersection and something happened with the bridge that carries the streets over the tracks that resulted in some sort of inspection. Supposedly, the gas tanks were too close to this bridge so those tanks couldn’t be refilled and the station had to shut down. There isn’t any safe place to put the tanks on the property so it can’t re-open as a gas station and the story is the ground is contaminated so nothing else can go there without a cleanup.
There is one near me like that also. The little shopping center is right by the freeway - but not right by a freeway exit ramp. At least a few of the restaurants were very good, but they all failed.