The Vacant Shops Academy

I’ve shared almost 100 positive #highstreet news stories from my timeline so far this month.

It’s January.

There’s 3 days more to go.

And still. Averaging 4 sent across, every day.

I get that it’s challenging in our town and city centres, that we have a huge amount still to do. But…

Surely that’s enough to warrant a sliver of good news breaking into the generally gloomster national media narrative. Surely…?

The stories I’ve shared with our good friend Laura Harris for her brilliant #HighStreetPositives campaign include:

+ Brand #retail and  #hospitality openings;

+ Previously online-only businesses launching bricks & mortar;

+ New independent shops and venues or those celebrating milestones;

+ Agents and #property directors publishing requirements lists for additional locations;

+ Proactive projects and initiatives by councils, BIDs and others in their places;

+ Upbeat trading reports.

And yet…

Industry bodies stick to their long held strategy of painting the high street as being in trouble and needing help as if that’s the only way to get government attention, a majority of media outlets and analysts that feed them continue to favour ‘death of…’ stories because that’s supposed to win more clicks, and an odd collection of others chime in because it serves their anti-ruling-party politics.

So – assuming we’re not imagining the positives we’re seeing on the ground, every day – how do we turn the narrative…?

Please help. Do share cheering stories from your place or its businesses. Go…!

What do your vacant #highstreet units look like on the inside, especially if they’re the long-time, tricky-to-let ones.

Do you know…? Has your tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ been and taken a look. It’d be great to hear if you have and what you thought.

I’m a big fan of the local team – town or BID manager, council planning, building control and, where involved, conservation officers, plus architects, cultural organisation leads and others identified locally – trying this approach rather than think it’s just a commercial #property agent-landlord thing.

To start with it’s much easier to get a sense of the options…

• What could the unit be let to;
• Would it be best split up, uppers separated off, or grounds divided into smaller units;
• What sort of condition is it in. Is the cost to sort that potentially prohibitive, what are the barriers;
• Is #popupshop / ‘meanwhile… use’ an option;
• Is vinyling or wallart / shutterart the only realistic choice for now;
• And importantly, could one or more of the stakeholders help…?

I’d really encourage places with vacancy rates in the mid / high teens or over 20%, and especially those with large, ex- department store or #retail brand, big bank units, to try this.

For sure I’d say it greatly increases your chances of finding a solution and one that works best for the town centre and your wider tackling vacancy strategy.

Go for it…!

For those of you used to seeing (or maybe even using) the words “greedy” or “absentee” every time you read “landlord”, conversations in recent weeks have suggested some alternatives.

How about “struggling”, “anxious”, “at a loss”, “prepared to try things”…?

It’s one of the (many) reasons we so strongly believe in every town and city centre having a proactive, positive tackling #highstreet vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ to take on challenges like this together.

The changes we’ve seen in recent years, especially the demise of some department stores, national brands moving out-of-town and banks closing, have left many locations with large, empty and often tricky to let buildings.

Maybe they need re-purposing, to have the upper floors separated off, the ground divided up, a different kind of use, #popup occupiers or vinyling while we sort out the long term – maybe a combination of all those.

But from a landlord perspective, what if you:

• Bought when there was a tenant paying rent that unexpectedly left;
• Had brand #retail or a bank in and now have no hope of securing new tenants for the kinds of sums they paid;
• Are relying on the income for your pension or as a basis for loans;
• Now pay business rates as well as getting zero rent;
• Don’t have the capital to fund major works;
• Are wondering about planning permission you may not win.

Still I’m sensing some reading this will have little or no sympathy.

Be that as it may. I’d argue that the case is made for the ‘place’ to take this on. Have agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, council planners, conservation officers and economic development teams, chamber leaders, BID managers where there is one go visit.

See from the inside what could be done on layout, condition etc, which use types might suit and how to attract them, consider ‘meanwhile… use’ and importantly, agree ways you can all play a part.

I’d say you’re more likely to get a quicker more sustainable solution and one that better suits the place, its residents, existing businesses and visitors. You…?

A really intriguing part of our tackling #highstreet vacancy work of late has been conversations with local housing association colleagues, school, college, library / leisure services leaders and, next week, police officers about playing a part – even as far as taking on an empty unit for their organisation.

If you haven’t already, might it be worth exploring in your place…?

It’s a feature of our #TheVacantShopsAcademy approach that we’re testing options beyond #retail, #hospitality & services including arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing. And it’s especially a potential go to for places with mid- / high teens or over 20% vacancy rates where these ‘alternative’ or additional use types might be more likely to make things happen.

Options could include:

• community hubs;
• extra space when they’ve reached capacity in their own buildings;
• chance to be in the typically more accessible town centre when their base is in a location mostly reached by car;
• innovating with service offers they’ve not tried before;
• And maybe others we’ve not yet thought of…?

At the heart of it is the idea that where national brands or indies are hesitant – for now at least – these community uses could take on units, solo or in collaboration, improve the look of an empty, boost footfall, support your existing businesses and help kick start a revival by creating a momentum that commercial operators then follow.

Though its early days, we’ve had some really encouraging discussions in places we’re working, and there is a growing portfolio of examples around the country to draw on, so…

It’d be great to hear from #property and #placemaking colleagues who are on the case with these types of uses already…

Promoting your existing town or city centre businesses and making sure you support them as best you can is a really important, but sometimes lost, part of a tackling #highstreet vacancy project.

In our work with #TheVacantShopsAcademy we often find that empty ‘shops’ dominate the narrative, media coverage and resident perceptions, and the great brand & indie #retail, #hospitality and services businesses and organisations your place does have get forgotten.

It’s another of the reasons we believe so strongly in a positive, proactive ‘place partnership’ because, while it’s bringing agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, council(s), chamber and BID where there is one together to help reduce vacancy numbers and improve the mix of uses, it can co-ordinate a ‘promote’ effort too.

That might mean:
+ Print, broadcast and social media campaigns;

+ Training to develop skills;

+ Joint initiatives such as restaurant week, activity around events in the calendar or similar;

+ Business support to build resilience.

All this is based on the idea that the very last thing you need while working hard to recruit new occupiers for empty units is to see some of those you have closing (if you can help it – and it’s important to realise there are sometimes factors beyond your influence).

Is your place doing the very best it can to ‘promote’ and support what you have. It’d be great to hear…

It’s interesting how often a single empty building or a small number of them feel like they hold the key to the future for a whole town or city centre, even when they’re only one or a few out of a hundred or more.

It’s one of the (many) reasons why we urge #TheVacantShopsAcademy locations to get a ‘place partnership’ in play to work together on tackling whatever issues are causing vacancy, and play the part they can in guiding new uses.

It means existing businesses, community, cultural organisations, council(s), chamber, BID where there is one getting involved in the conversation and maybe even contributing in a practical way…

What might the building be used for…?

• we as a ‘place’ can ask what’s missing in our offer and would add to the mix, then help identify and attract potential candidate occupiers;
• would splitting it up help. Maybe separate uses on upper floors or dividing the ground into smaller units or both…?
• planning, conservation and building control teams with architects and developers could do some pre-work on the possibilities. Is there a grant scheme to help fund any works required;

Is there a way to have it look the best it can while this process plays out…?

• Is the ‘place’ up for facilitating a #popupshop initiative or vinyling.

You may find when you check that the unit is already under offer with a would-be occupier or that an architect is readying re-purposing plans. It may tho be proving tricky to let and the #property agent and landlord welcome your ‘place partnership’ input. But if you don’t ask…

It’d be great to hear how your place is getting involved…

We’ve chosen as an illustration prominent buildings from recent out & abouts, tho of course they may or might not match this conversation. But there’s no shortage of locations with examples that do.

A nearby coastline could be a big asset for tackling #highstreet vacancy and improving the mix of uses in your town or city centre.

But how…?

It seems like connectivity, competition and confidence might be key to this.

• Is the beach or the view or its working life attracting people;
• Are they the same as the target ages and demographic for the businesses you have;

Does the branding and marketing of your coastline (or waterway as the same might apply to those) include the town centre too;

Do they travel (drive…?) to your coastline, enjoy that and head home without venturing to the town centre;

• Do you have great wayfinding and positive information sources there to point people to town and encourage them to go, and if it’s a distance, attractive ‘transport’ options to help;

Or have you sited all the things they might need for a day out in the coastline area so they don’t actually need to go use your town…?

It may even be that your visitors offer a clue to elements of the #retail, #hospitality or services your ‘place partnership’ aims for to fill your empties. Or that going after arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage; leisure uses is a good fit.

It’d be great to hear from #placemaking and #property colleagues who’ve made a coastline or waterway asset work for your town centre.

Artists, crafters, creative and culture groups could for sure play a bigger part in our town and city centres.

We know from our work with #TheVacantShopsAcademy that many would love to if we can overcome the barriers.

So it’s exciting to be connecting with creatives in one of our locations to try assess interest levels.

“Would you like to have an arts & crafts, creative, culture, community-based shop in your local town centre…? Maybe, short term, starting as part of a pop-up shop project, but longer term if it works well for you. Could you stock and run the shop on your own or would it work better with other makers – either people you know already or could meet as part of a wider project. Are there other ways you think creative individuals, groups and organisations could get involved.”
 
Examples we’ve see in other places include:

• Makers Collectives – where groups of artists and crafters combine to run a shop;
• Art Galleries which feature a number of artists, and they run together;
• Community art classes and workshops run from town centre units;
• Markets (both indoor and outdoor) that feature local crafts as all or part of their offer;
• ‘Knit & natter’ groups and others where people get together to practice their art or craft skills in a town centre setting;
• Wall art, shutterart or on-street art installations where local artists and crafters contribute to making their place look better.

Accepting that there are barriers to overcome here, it feels like a sector that has huge potential to help with tackling #highstreet vacancy and the wider #placemaking conversation. Let’s see.

What do you think…?

Where do we get the next generation of #highstreet shopkeepers from.

The question was prompted by looking through the list of suggestions on our previous post which asked for “a list of new shops you’d love to see in our town or city centres, something that you personally would make the journey in to use, and do so often enough that (with others doing the same) the owner can run it viably, long term.”

Suggestions included:

• bookshops
• eco / refill, zero waste store
• grocers, butchers, bakers
• toy shop
• baby equipment centre
• clothes shop
• hardware / DIY store
  & more, but do check out the full list on that thread.

So how do we help make that happen. Is there some kind of national initiative we can turn to in one or more of those sectors to deliver a group of would-be new owners….? Or is it something each local tackling vacancy ‘place partnership’ will need do for itself…?

What do you think…?

To me the options look like:

• existing #retail businesses expanding into a second town centre based on the success of their first;
• markets or trade shows or online giving people a start they can then build on by taking a shop;
• for arts & crafts, creative, a makers collective producing spin off ventures from amongst the team;
• children of existing owners continuing the family business or similar;
• some kind of industry training scheme;
• career change with people leaving ‘a job in the city’ to open up on their own;
• schools and colleges and towns themselves facilitating ‘markets’ for students to sell things they’ve made.

What have I missed…?

And before I get the Pollyanna comparison again, I understand that who’ll run these new shops is only one on a long list of challenging considerations we need to tackle, but please bear with…

Let’s write a list of new shops we’d love to see in our town or city centres.

Just one rule. It’s got to be something that you personally would make the journey in to use, and do so often enough that (with others doing the same) the owner can run it viably, long term.

Go…!

I ask for two practical reasons.

First because this is a challenge we set for local teams working on tackling #highstreet vacancy with #TheVacantShopsAcademy. Talk to residents and existing businesses about what’s missing and what they’d like to see (and use), then go out and try recruit those types to help fill empty units.

It’s also though, important for places that don’t have lots of empty units but are concerned about the way uses they do have has changed in recent years, and are keen to try maximise the benefit of what the remaining few are let to and add to their current mix

I get that #retail is only part of the story and that a range of other options – arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing – as well as #hospitality and services, may be on target lists to.

So… over to you. What’s the one new shop you’d bring to your place if you could and why…?