If you could bring one empty unit in your town or city centre back into use, which would it be…
and why…? Might it be because it’s a prominent, landmark maybe heritage building, it’s very long time empty, it looks worse than any of the others, it has the most potential to transform the fortunes of the street it’s on or your place as a whole…?
It’d be great to hear and, if you have them, to see images of the one you’d choose.
I’d also be interested to hear how you’re going about it.
- Are you in conversation with the agent or landlord;
- Have you taken a ‘place partnership’ team including council planners, conservation officers, building control with private sector architects and developers inside to assess the options, the barriers to getting it back in play and potential roles in that for each partner;
- Is splitting the ground floor into smaller units or separating off the uppers if it has them an option;
- Could you use the new High Street Rental Auction power to help make progress;
- Did you explore pop up or meanwhile use opportunities;
- Might alternative uses – arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health, health & wellbeing – be a go-to rather than #retail, #hospitality or services.
We’ve just been talking through this whole process with one of the locations we’re supporting on tackling #highstreet vacancy as part of their work on a priority ‘target units’ list.
Do let us know what’s on yours and how you’re going about turning them round…
