small commerical units in old parts of Milwaukee

[Dan C.]

Would like to hear what other Milwaukee investors think of those small storefronts on busy streets in the old parts of the city.

The reason I ask is so often they have 2 or 3 residential units as well as the small storefront.  

So just imagine a small , 750 s.f storefront on say Villard, no parking, and it has some 2 units, just as an example I made up.  I'm sure you can all picture those, they are all over the place on busier streets in the old neighborhood.

I think often these could be worthless, but I was wondering anybody have any first or second hand experience with these?  Are they hard to rent out and retain tenants?  How much s.f. do you need to have it attractive to convenience store operators? Is it worth it to buy and convert to residential, is that hard to do?  Is it hard to rent out the residential units connected to them, how much less would the rent be then the same unit on a residential street?

[Dan C.]

@Carlton B. @Ramon JenkinsYeah I know, but my larger point is about that kind of structure.  Let's say instead of 4500 N it was 6500 N, I still wouldn't like it, I don't think it has much use.  Let's take it to another extreme, say it was in Shorewood, it would be OK, you'd find someone wants a small office or maybe a small retailer.  But outside of the strongest areas, if I bought a buidling like this I'd be afraid of just ending up with a storefront church paying practically nothing or empty.