“Un- and under-used upper floors on the #highstreet is a significant issue for town and city centres around the country, so understanding the barriers to re-purposing and re-using these spaces and the role that each stakeholder can play will be very valuable learning.”
Super excited to be headed back to the awesome city that is Aberdeen next month to work with a local experts team on this new initiative to help address an important challenge.
The ‘Technical Panel’, as it’s called, will bring together council specialists in planning and building standards with architects, developers and commercial letting agents to explore options for under- or unused premises above the ground floor level of the Granite Mile.
Aberdeen is already a national beacon for its ‘place partnership’ work to tackle vacancy on Union Street and the significant reductions it’s made in empty unit numbers, so this is a really neat follow on project, and one we think lots of other places will be able to benefit from.
The idea is that one-by-one the panel will visit each of the currently empty and available upper floors spaces on Union Street and run through the barriers and solutions process so would-be occupiers will have a much clearer perspective on what is possible. It will also advise the place partners to the initiative – Aberdeen Inspired BID, Aberdeen City Council – City Development & Regeneration, Our Union Street and others – on policies, regulations and projects that may be needed to help overcome the barriers, such as funding and lobbying.
We’re sooooo looking forward to getting started.
If un- and under-used space on upper floors in your town or city centre is a challenge that could be an opportunity, do take a look…
