A huge bunch of stuff on brian katz
For example, it can be a piece of property with a strip mall on it. It can be vacant land that has been set aside and zoned by the city to allow a business to be built on it. Commercial real estate may even have a residential home sitting on it at the moment. What happens is that the town may begin to encroach on residential property and then the property may be rezoned to allow it to be reclassified as commercial real estate now. A town may grow to the point where a house that was safely located in a residential zone may need to be cleared out for commercial real estate once the town has grown to a certain point.