It’s a large, prominent but now long-empty unit in your town centre, and it’s starting show the signs of that too. Paint peeling, partly boarded up, greenery sprouting around the windows.
Got one like that or more…?
So what are you doing about it as a place.
I’ve spent part of this week working with a number of the locations we’re supporting around tackling #highstreet vacancy on what we call their ‘target units’…
…empties they have that look to be a priority for getting back in to play.
So what’s the plan…?
First is “get the keys” and take a ‘place partnership’ team inside to work out occupier options, the barriers to getting the unit back into play and how they can be overcome, and importantly which of the partners needs step up to make that happen.
It might be splitting the ground floor into smaller units, separating off the uppers if it’s multi-floor, starting its journey back by organising a short term, pop-up shop let or, if it’s in too poor a way for that, at least making it look better with a frontage refurb, vinyling or similar.
It’s all part of our core message that reducing the number of empty units you have and improving the mix of uses isn’t “just an agent-landlord thing”, and that the place, working together, can take chunks out of its headline vacancy rate.
It’d be great to hear from #placemaking or #property colleagues on how you’re getting any landmark empties in your town or city centre back into play. Or to hear from you if you’re stuck with one or more.
Do let us know…
