At every visit we make to one of our commissioned locations, we learn something new. Often, they are new ideas, innovations, and initiatives that we can share with local teams in other places.
We publish our findings in the News Centre and categorise each article as case studies. You can find our latest case studies below, but three notable examples are:
Aberdeen is a beacon for the way it has taken up the ‘place partnership’ approach to tackling vacancy on its central Union Street, particularly with its upper floors study and follow-on initiative. The impact it is having is something that we think other places with unused and underutilised upper floors (as an issue) could draw on for sure.
Crewe is an example of a place that has focused on arts & crafts, creative, culture and community uses in its initial work to tackle town centre vacancy. This is not to say that retail, hospitality, and services have not been part of the story too; they all have and will continue to be. What we call the ‘alternative’ or additional use types, however, are what we focused on to make a start on that road to reduce the number of empty units and build the momentum required to move others forward.
Tredegar is also tackling vacancy with a slightly different focus, working on ‘look’ initiatives including public realm, street furniture painting and other refresh work, plus creating stunning pieces of wall art. Their aim here is to improve the town centre environment to help attract customers and visitors, and to create a great first impression for new would-be business occupiers and investors.
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Feel very lucky…
…to have the opportunity to be starting work with two special towns. 🤳🏽 Running the ‘audit, engage’ phase of our #TheVacantShopsAcademy approach in Abertillery and Tredegar for Blaenau Gwent Council, but reflections on a first visit were about the strengths … Continue reading →
