94 million square feet of retail space already closing in 2018

According to this fresh article from CNBC, the large stores already announced to close in 2018 total 94 MILLION square feet.  The article says we're well on track to beat the all time record, set last year, of 105 million square feet of retail space closing.  And we're still (officially) in a growth period.  We're not in a recession. 

OK, I'm pegging the start of the recession as April 4th, 2018, but that's just my educated guess.  Recessions always begin with the government, mainstream news, and financial news telling everyone that we're not in a recession for the first six months or so of actual recession.  If we officially go into a recession, the number above will SOAR. 

All that speculation aside, just how much space is 94 million square feet?

Since there's 43,560 square feet in an acre, that's 2,157.943 acres. 

When I was a kid in Ohio, 2,000 acres was a big family farm.

That's enough empty stores to cover New York City's Central Park... 2 1/2 times.

That's enough empty stores to cover the New Orleans Superdome (aka Mercedes Benz Superdome)... 166 times.

That's enough empty stores to cover 14 large, modern golf courses (150 acres), or 28 average American golf courses (74 acres). 

My question, and the reason I'm fascinated by the Retail Apocalypse, is: What are we going to do with all that empty space under roof? 

Nobody knows.  Some small dead malls and retail space have been turned into upscale apartments, medical offices, a city library, schools, and other businesses.  But this is an absurd amount of empty store space. 

We blew it with all the houses that got abandoned in the 2008 Great Recession real estate collapse.  We, as a society, could have done a lot better things with all those empty houses.  I'm looking for ways to use all this empty retail (and office, and house) space in really smart ways. 

Wanna build a skatepark in your region?  Here's a map linked in the bottom of that article that shows the location of the big stores closing this year.  This doesn't include the thousands of smaller stores closing.