What happens when a national brand targets your town or city centre for a new store or venue.
Working on tackling #highstreet vacancy, as we are now with 36 different locations, we’ve many agent connections and so regularly see and send on requirement lists, which set out the places they’d like to open in.
Typically those lists have more names than they’ll eventually expand into, which makes it competitive. Agency colleagues will correct me if I’m wrong but I’ve always said to local tackling vacancy teams that if they respond with a list of units that fit the bill plus agent or landlord details it can help their cause.
So what’s the current response if your town or city centre is on a list…?
- the ‘place partnership’ gets in touch, maybe with a council or BID team member taking the lead;
- a local agent or a national that has units in your place picks up the task;
- Nothing.
It’s another of the many reasons we believe so strongly in our ‘place partnership’ approach. It means, working together, the local team knows its empty units and has all the necessary details to share, but more than that it’s also done some work on what the town or city centre has already, what’s missing, what comparable places have and the kinds of #retail, #hospitality or other use types residents and existing businesses would welcome. In other words you know what to go for and whether you have empty units that match.
So if you’re not across the requirements process, it’s a really useful tip to take up.
Do let us know if you’re on the case…
