The Vacant Shops Academy

So what’s your town or city centre’s real vacancy rate…?

It’s a question sparked this week by finalising Initial Data Reports listing the units that look empty for 3 #highstreet locations after running #TheVacantShopsAcademy ‘audit’ there.

Next step is to ‘engage’ with #property agents, landlords and businesses to understand the backstory of the ‘empties’ and any barriers to letting. Part of that is checking the status of those units. Tho they appear to be vacant, are they actually let but have yet to see fit out start…? Are they at heads of terms, or under offer or has refurbishment work by the new tenant started behind closed doors.

Knowing the answer to these questions can make a huge difference to a place. In one location we audited, the number of units that were still ‘empty and available’ after we’d checked was ONE THIRD of the headline vacancy figure from that initial walk-see check.

Where that’s the case, finding the scale of vacancy is very much smaller than it appears, can mean a very different policy, projects, #placemaking approach going forward.

You might have been thinking demolish, repurpose, turn to resi when actually what you need is to curate the last few vacants to uses that add to your place’s mix and attractiveness. You may even need to create extra #retail or #hospitality space…?

That’s why we’re so keen to see more places take charge of this issue and drill down beyond the visual vacancy count.

It’ll be interesting to see what the numbers for the latest commissions get to…!

There’s much conversation in #placemaking about the role of #markets and especially indoor versions in #highstreet regeneration, and it’s been a feature of a number of recent out & about visits and ‘audit, engage’ work with #TheVacantShopsAcademy.

• What are the factors in the success of the market halls we’ve seen…?
• Is it part of the solution for every place or only some…?
• Should they focus on food & drink and #hospitality or #retail or a mix of the two…?
• Do they replace the traditional outdoor market or work together…?

And more…

Third town centre out & about in ten days took me for the first time to the attractive place that is Abergavenny, just for a look-see in this case rather than a #TheVacantShopsAcademy ‘audit’.

Reflecting on these recent three, and much of the conversation about whether a town needs a USP, if it can have more than one, might there be a version for residents and something different for visitors…? Does it need apply all year round, or can it just be for a handful of days / weeks in a year…?

Interesting also how different elements play their part: food & drink, markets, #retail, #hospitality, heritage, history, arts & crafts, culture, creative including #streetart. What else…?

It’s an interesting #highstreet #placemaking debate.

History & heritage. #highstreet.

Out & about in Monmouth with #TheVacantShopsAcademy and thinking – not for the first time in a place – about how those two elements work together.

There’s sometimes a perspective that the first is for visitors, the other for residents, that there is little or no cross over, and even that there’s conflict between the needs of the local population and ‘tourists’. Is the challenge then how best to connect them so they are a draw for both audiences and share the benefits…?

It’s not always easy – especially in places where the ‘visitor attractions’ are away from the town centre – but it feels like a valuable win if we can pull it off.

Really enjoyable #highstreet #placemaking out & about in Chepstow.

A town with awesome visitor attractions, a mix of #indie and national brand #retail, #hospitality and services, encouraging evidence of new investment, and signs all around the town centre that it recognises and remembers important features of its past.

Lots to like, and looking forward to heading back.

Really enjoyable time at the Warwickshire Towns Network #placemaking conference in Warwick, with chance to be out & about in an attractive, largely #indie, heritage town centre.

An opportunity also to share #TheVacantShopsAcademy ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to tackling #highstreet empty shops issues, and to hear the practical challenges councils, BIDs and businesses are facing on the ground in doing this.

Struck as ever by the frustrations they find in getting, especially long-time, empties back into use, and the difficulties they encounter tracing and engaging with some landlords. So maybe less surprising to hear the largely positive reaction in the room to the High Street Rental Auctions idea that’s promised as a future tool for local authorities to use against vacancy.

We know this is something many colleagues in the commercial #property sector have reservations about (to put it mildly…!) so interesting to see where the policy gets to…?

Day 2 of our #TheVacantShopsAcademy out & about running ‘audit, engage’ in 8 South Gloucestershire #highstreet locations – Kingswood and Hanham this time – and picking up the theme of uses mix in a place.

Interesting to see some of the newer (or in some cases new old) use types alongside the established and traditional #retail, #hospitality, services businesses and organisations.

It’ll vary with the place and circumstances, #property options and #placemaking input, but more and more we’re seeing art & crafts, creative, culture, community, leisure, education, health & wellbeing playing a bigger part. And it helps…!

First of a series of out & about days in South Gloucestershire #highstreet locations.

Downend and Staple Hill first and a real strong sense of their #indie #retail and #hospitality group, mixing the new with established, traditional with of today.

It’s a valuable part of our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to tackling empty shops issues, to think and consult about what a place has and what would add to the mix…!

Hugely enjoyable #highstreet #placemaking out & about in Reading town centre this week.

It’s a place that mixes history and heritage, #retail, #hospitality & more, national brands and a strong #indie group, some of them very long-established.

It also has a set of really interesting and varying #property opportunities for businesses and organisations keen to join the mix here.

And for sure it’s one of those places that 💯 rewards looking up while you’re looking around.

Very excited to be running our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach here, and adding to what we’ve learned in other tackling empty shops issues projects around the UK.

One of the things that makes tackling #highstreet empty shops issues commissions sooooooo interesting and inspiring is the variety.

In a single #TheVacantShopsAcademy day out & about this week…

New lettings taking shape, the first signs of refurbishment getting underway on a long-time empty #property, a craft-based #hospitality #indie planning a town-wide collaboration of like-minded business owners, and – tho the role means I often get to see inside vacant units – having an opportunity to look in on something genuinely special.

And what links them all together is a crucial, finding, facilitating maybe funding role for the place – whether that be councils, a BID where there is one, community, businesses, individuals – to support agents and landlords in getting us from vacant to let, and where we can, in a way that adds to the town or city centre’s mix, vitality, viability and resilience.

Always happy to talk about how if your place has more empty shops than it needs to…!