The Vacant Shops Academy

Which brands do you most want to see taking up empty units in your town or city centre…

…and importantly, are you working, as a team, to try recruit them…?

Typically there are a number of ways places develop their list:

• checking what they have currently and what’s missing;
• consulting residents and existing business owners on what they’d like to see;
• comparing with neighbouring and similar places to see what they have that you could;
• looking out for agent and property director requirements lists where they set out target locations for new openings.

There’s also a fifth – so far less well-used route – a location planning, data-based one – which we definitely think more could adopt.

Identifying your targets and then working together to recruit them is one of the key tasks we set for ‘place partnership’ teams in locations we’re supporting on tackling highstreet vacancy…

…on the basis that it’s more likely to deliver lettings that add to the mix and are welcomed than if you think of this as “just an agent-landlord thing”.

It’s also worth emphasising that brands are only one of three potential go-to options, the others being independents and uses off our ‘alternative’ / additional list. But the approach is the same.

It’d be really interesting to hear what the targets are for your place and the steps you’re taking to try attract them…!

Two more brands published on Friday a list of locations they’d like to open up in.

One listed 19 locations plus another 20 inside the M25. The other featured 22 UK possibles plus 17 more in Central or Greater London.

Is your town or city centre on either list…?

Are you looking out for these ‘requirements’…

…and, importantly, are you geared up as a ‘place partnership’ to connect with agents and property directors when they share these, and do you have details of all empty and available units in your location so you can quickly send them suitable options.

As it’s often the case that the ‘target locations’ list is longer than the number they’ll actually open, this can be a competitive thing, rewarding places that are quick off the mark, most proactive and supportive.

It’s one of the roles we identify for local ‘place partnership’ teams we’re supporting on tackling highstreet vacancy, alongside the work they’re doing to identify vacant units, understand why they’re like that, how the barriers to let can be overcome and which partner needs step up to make that happen.

We’re really interested to see some of the different ways they’re going about that too.

It’d be great to hear from other council and BID teams who are on the case…

“It just feels like a really important time to be having these positive but also very practical conversations about our high streets.”

So, reflecting on another insightful, inspiring, heartening day with HighStreetPositives LIVE.

Hosting a three-hour event with 8 panellists, 3 speakers, a ‘fireside chat’, intro and reflections sections, and a head full of questions, timings etc, means it’s taken a little longer to draw out takeaways than the many shared here already over the last 24 hours or so.

Lots of great stuff happening in Bath and neighbour towns but also in a number of other places that contributors spoke about, projects and initiatives to learn from and tailor or adjust so they work in your town or city centre.

For me – along with a number of individual ideas to pick up with colleagues in the days ahead – two things stood out.

First a sense that in the conversations before, on the walking tours, at the break, after we’d closed and in messages since, there’ll be a huge amount built on this in a way it’s harder to do via the online version. So I’m glad that for all the plusses of Teams calls and the like, we still make time to meet IRL.

Second – and this was especially encouraging thinking about our tackling #highstreet vacancy work and the emphasis we put on having a ‘place partnership’ on the case. How much better, stronger, quicker and more sustainably we make progress working together.

In that room – and clearly very much part of the Bath story – we had attendees from business and community, council colleagues, the BID, creative, cultural & heritage organisations and importantly (as they’re often missed out of ‘town board’ type conversations) agents and landlords, as well as a range of specialists who bring particular skill sets to the table.

Not everywhere has this kind of positive, proactive ‘place partnership’ (yet…!) and it’s something we’d love to see become the norm.

It’d be great to hear positive working together examples from your places…

Thanks Laura Harris, thanks to everyone who played a part in a(nother) memorable day…!

“Pop-up shops could play a bigger part in our evolving highstreet…”

Every town centre tackling vacancy project I worked on before setting up The Vacant Shops Academy featured a pop-up shop, at least one.

Wantage, our first project, where the number of empty units reduced from 23 to 3 in 18 months, had 3 pop-up units in different parts of the town centre.

Unless they have one in play already, considering starting a pop-up project is among the ‘next steps’ we share with all the locations we’re commissioned on tackling highstreet vacancy. That gives a sense of how valuable we believe they can be.

So, to try encourage greater take-up, we’ve written a new addition to our Academy guides and briefing notes series which explains the ‘why’ and ‘how’ but, importantly, does that from a place rather than pop-up occupier perspective.

Getting empty units back in play on a short-term, temporary basis (hence pop-up or ‘meanwhile… use’) is a well-established and proven option which can have multiple benefits for the place as a whole…

• It can help kick-start a town or city centre-wide empty shops project
• brings vacant units back into play
• improves their look to the benefit of the place and neighbouring businesses
• adds to the current offer with the potential that has to support existing businesses on footfall and dwell-time
• allows the place to prioritise uses that add to its current mix and so helps attract additional customers / visitors
• delivers on the resident / business wish list of ideal new occupier types you’ll draw up at the start of your tackling vacancy project
• gives you a source of positive media stories at a time when your place might have negative perceptions because of the vacancy issue.

But there are also, importantly, benefits to the businesses and organisations that pop-up there, and these in turn count as positive spin offs for the town or city centre as a whole.

If you are running a pop-up shop project in your place it’d be great to hear how it’s going…

We need to fix this issue…

On average more than half of visibly vacant highstreet units don’t have an agent involved in try to get them let.

Do you know what the figure is in your town or city centre…?

Are you working to try put it right…?

We’re keeping a tally of the ‘agent versus no agent’ numbers across the 45 locations The Vacant Shops Academy has tackling vacancy commissions.

The survey covers more than 1,000 units now so that 50+ per cent is a lot of properties maybe getting back into use more slowly than they could be.

And remember it’s an average so because places like Cheltenham or Reading had lower ‘no agent’ percentages (tho in the 20 per cents, still higher than ideal)…others have higher rates, some into the 70s and 80s.

If we can agree that not having an agent proactively working on a letting and as a result no easily accessible information for would-be occupiers to find is a problem, then hopefully you can see why it’s something we ask tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ teams we’re supporting to try address.

It’d be really interesting to get a sense of the issue as you see it in your place…?

Getting empty shops back in use can boost ‘Pride in Place’ AND drive economic growth.

As tackling highstreet vacancy is the focus of our work with 45 UK locations now, we’re used to thinking that having too many empty units is just an obvious negative to be put right.

What’s maybe less well explained is how doing that contributes significantly to achieving those two high profile government policy objectives.

Here’s how…

On ‘Pride in Place’, empty units…

• often look bad so create a negative perception among residents;
• can attract ASB;
• provoke negative media stories;
• increase the risk your place will feature in a national ‘worst for empty shops’ list.

On economy…

• They’re literally a waste of space that could instead be a growth-building opportunity for local businesses, arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, education, health & wellbeing, especially in places with an ‘inclusive economy’ objective;
• They make things harder for existing businesses, increasing the chance that they’ll leave also;
• Discourage inward investment by would-be new occupiers.

Get them back into play, especially when you do that as a ‘place’ so that the lettings are to use types residents and existing businesses have asked for, and…

• The units look better;
• There are new occupiers to attract customers who maybe also support existing businesses;
• Jobs are created;
• Revenues boosted;
• Inward investment becomes a better option…
• …and you have upbeat stories to tell.

Boosting ‘Pride in Place’, driving economic growth.

And all this builds momentum in an upward steps effect, rather than the worsening downward spiral you get with increasing or even stable vacancy.

The real positive here tho is that we know how to reduce empty shop numbers and improve the mix of uses. You can see local town and city centre teams doing it.

Do let us know if your place is up for joining them…

“The number of empty town centre units reduced from 23 to 3 in 18 months.”

A special day to be back in the town where our tackling highstreet vacancy journey started and to meet some of the business owners and community leaders we worked with then…

Sooooo much of the ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach we’re now taking to town and city centres around the UK, I learned and first tested here.

When we started in 2013, Wantage town centre had 23 vacant units – not the most we’ve ever worked with, in fact at what was then around 12% of the total it was similar to the national average, but too many for an Oxfordshire market town. 

With team work, collaboration between groups and organisations, some innovation on pop up shops, a community space and more, the 23 empties reduced to 3 in 18 months. We were lucky enough to win a Great British High Streets Award, a number of other places took note and the rest, as they say…

Heading back a dozen or so years on, it’s great to see a number of the businesses that moved in during that period are still there;

+ Arbery Arcade, which started as a cut-through with 3 large units and bits & pieces of unused space, has continued to be the indie hub it became, more than once acting as an incubator to give shops a start that then moved into spaces in the town centre itself;

+ The brilliant community space The Mix is still running too;

+ …and there’ve been further new additions and arrivals.

Challenges too, as so many town centres have had across that time span, including the departure of three highstreet banks, tho all their units are now re-let.

Thank you Wantage…!

It’d be interesting to hear from placemaking and property colleagues on the changes your town and city centres have seen if you reflect on visits and / or working there in the 2013-16 period. Do let us know…

It was great to meet another wife and husband team who are part of the growing group of new independents opening up in town and city centres we’re supporting on tackling highstreet vacancy…

Our lead image is Bea and Adrian at HoneyBea “creating beautiful candles made from natural beeswax” in their shop on Castle Street, Tredegar, one of 3 new openings on that street already this year with another to follow soon.

Like one of their near neighbours, The Painted Lady Tattoo Parlour & Art Gallery and a number of the new openings in other locations, they’re going beyond retail to offer classes and workshops and they’ve also just added the offer of sales space to help local crafters begin their own town centre journey.

As they put it: “At Honey Bea Art Gallery, we know how difficult it can be for new artists and crafters to get noticed and start selling their work. That’s why we want to create a space that helps you take that first step.”

These stories are part of a HighStreetPositives theme we’re seeing from both independents and some brands…

• Add variety to your offer by sharing space and collaborating with other businesses;
• Build new audiences, strengthen your community and draw on the interest in experiential with classes and workshops;
• And do one or both to create additional income streams, attract customers at different times of the day or week and, maybe, make use of parts of your building – typically upper floors – that you otherwise might not.

From a tackling vacancy perspective the part of our ‘alternative’ / additional uses list that is arts & crafts, creative, culture, community looks, for a number of reasons, to be a really promising go-to option for ‘place partnership’ teams thinking about ways to fill empty spaces.

It’d be good to hear examples from your town and city centres…