Hands up who has a unit or even a whole building in their town or city centre that’s been empty for five years.
Any for 10 years…? What about 20…?
It’s a question I asked attendees at an interactive workshop I was kindly invited to chair for Association of Town & City Management and their Summer School #SS25Bradford.
The focus was on the inspirational story of the city’s Bradford Live venue. Do look it up if it’s one you’ve not heard.
It’s a building that – through a number of entertainment uses down the years – holds a place in the hearts and memories of generations but had found itself shut, near derelict and for those looking on, dispiriting.
Now just opening up again, it’s ready to create new memories…
…and from a starting point of three friends going to look it over, through council involvement and investment, a stunning but careful makeover, overcoming a number of setbacks, to today with a specialist operator getting it set to go, it’s a quite a journey.
Importantly for our work with local teams on tackling #highstreet vacancy, it’s a case study of how crucial the ‘place partnership’ approach can be to bringing these empty units and buildings back into play…
…and hopefully it will encourage you to don a hard hat, get the keys, maybe a torch, and take a local team inside your long-time empty units, work out the use options, the barriers and how they can be overcome, and which of the partners needs step up to make that happen.
