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Commercial real-estate, long a safe harbor for investors, must evolve or die.

Threats to the once irrepressible growth in the value of commercial real estate are crowding in, denying the fainting market the air it needs. Inflation, now galloping at 8.6 percent per year, shrinks the buying power of consumers—making existing retail tenants weaker and prospective tenants skittish—threatening higher vacancy and lower returns for investors. Online rivals are taking a growing share of retail sales, too. Meanwhile, employers are having a hard time getting remote workers back to the office. Some, especially in IT, quit when ordered to return. Commuter foot traffic has declined dramatically, crushing storefront retailers even on midtown Manhattan’s Madison Avenue and Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

Movie theaters will never fully recover from the threats of streaming, 4K screens, and surround sound at home. Regal Cinemas, whose parent company has filed for bankruptcy, operates more than 500 theaters in 42 states, which often anchor large suburban malls. Many of those theaters will go dark, as will the stores nearby.