&gt; Observe any abandoned or unused commercial structure in your town, such as the old building Walmart vacated to build a bigger Walmart 1000 feet down the road. Did the price of building either structure include the cost of cleaning them up?<p>The cost of cleanup typically falls upon the person who builds there next.<p>If that new Walmart is built on a property that already had a strip mall, first they tear down the strip mall and bear that cost.<p>The new Apple campus is a great example.  They tore down a bunch of old HP buildings and had to bear that cost.  They reduced the cost by grinding up the old buildings to make concrete for the new building.  Also, they probably discounted the purchase price of the land to account for the cleanup, so in some respect, HP bore that cost too.