The Vacant Shops Academy

Busy and exciting start to August ahead…!

Really looking forward to taking our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to tackling #highstreet vacancy into three new locations.

We start this week working with the town centres team at Carmarthenshire County Council which will take us to Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford.

Then mid-month we’re back to check in with colleagues on Crewe town centre – a place that’s seeing intriguing progress on getting its empty units back in play.

Our August ‘24 ‘audit’ there logged a high teens percentage vacancy but in the year since:

There’ve been a number of new openings – the latest of them this weekend;

• Word from agents is that #retail, #hospitality and community uses are looking to deliver more of those before the 2025 lettings season is through;

And – perhaps most significantly of all – there’s now been progress on the five largest empty non-shopping centre buildings: one with work well underway to re-purpose its upper floors, two more in planning for the same, and the last of the set both having recently changed ownership via auction so we’re watching closely how that impacts efforts to get them occupied.

With a number of other major developments and public realm improvements in and around the town centre starting to come on stream and the ‘Repurposing our High Streets’ / Open in Crewe grant scheme continuing to make a difference to the business case for would-be occupiers, it’s little wonder one of the private investors involved here said this week:

“It’s truly exciting times for Crewe and we are delighted to be playing our part.”

It’ll be great to catch up during our visit on all that’s occurring there.

So as we get towards the typically full-on run to Christmas in the ‘25 lettings season, it’d be interesting to hear if your place is seeing #HighStreetPositives too…?

Our town and city centres need more green spaces just so we can sit and rest a while.

It’d be great to hear from #placemaking colleagues on here about favourite examples where you live or work.

I mean a quiet spot where you can just sit and think or read or listen (on headphones) to music or a favourite podcast or whatever. Away from the bustle.

Maybe strangely the idea for this post came to me on a recent visit to London.

Arrive by train, cross the super busy, traffic-filled Marylebone Road, turn right after a short walk onto Marylebone High Street and you find just such a spot (see the image set) sheltered by trees, dotted with planting and quiet. A garden of rest. Quiet anywhere but especially so in a full on city.

I’ve probably not captured it as well as I could’ve because I wanted try and avoid images that included those taking the chance to stop who were, like me, sitting on one of its benches.

Raise this issue in conversation with place leaders and managers and you’ll typically get enthusiasm to have more such #highstreet spaces, quickly followed by a list of challenges to making it happen. Not least the opportunity cost of getting zero revenue from such a valuable bit of real estate, protecting it from anti-social behaviour, the cost of upkeep and maintenance and so on.

It’d be really interesting to hear what you think. Can we make more of these in our places…? If so. How…?

Tackling vacancy in your town or city centre might be like getting a former department store, now-empty big brand shop or ex-bank back in use…

…the answer may be splitting it up.

It’s an approach we’ve turned to in a number of the 36 locations we’re supporting through #TheVacantShopsAcademy, where one, two or more sections of the centre have varying vacancy levels, a different mix of uses and so challenges and opportunities that aren’t all the same.

Looking back it’s something we first drew on in Oxford city centre management days while working on its vision and action plan process.

One city centre and, by comparison with others, not one with a huge footprint, but within that, several distinct areas. Some had a cluster of vacant units. Several have attractions, historic / heritage features and street scene that give a clue to opportunities going forward. Within the whole there are different mixes of #retail, #hospitality, services or ‘alternative’ uses that create options for branding, promotion and targeting new tenants if empty units emerge.

Is it the same with your town or city centre…? Do you need a number of tackling #highstreet vacancy strategies rather than one…? It’d be interesting to hear.

I don’t know the vacancy numbers or back story now as well as I did in those days, but as it’s our nearest city, still visit Oxford often. One of the fascinating lessons has been to watch agents and landlords adjusting the mix on its actual High Street and attracting – as our image shows – new occupiers to take account of the changing citywide balance of shopping here.

How often are you in a town or city centre and see an empty unit (or more) looking terrible…?

Mishmash of rough looking boarding, broken glass, windows whitewashed or part covered in flyers on the outer or peeling brown paper inside, woodwork failing, window frames peeling, branches and bushes growing where they shouldn’t.

Dragging down perceptions of the place, feeding negative media stories, dissuading potential customers from visiting and dwelling, making things harder for existing #highstreet businesses.

To be fair, in lots of places now council teams, BIDs, agents and community groups are on the case, tidying up the worst examples, vinyling, creating attractive window displays and the like.

So today to give a shout out to the volunteers for Our Union Street in Aberdeen who – with proactive support from local #property agents – are building an impressive portfolio of empty units they’ve tidied up.

Our main images showcase their latest project, 23 Union Street, the former Tourist Information Office. As David White, who kindly gave us a heads up on this, says:

“We converted this empty unit on Union Street to promote the “Tall Ships Race”. Our volunteers cleaned the unit inside and out and filled it with a number of exhibitions.”

So here’s to the Street Union volunteers and all those in town and city centres who are doing similar.

It’d be great to hear of other examples…

Encouraging update this week from one of the early adopters for the new High Street Rental Auctions power for local councils.

I get that not everyone is a fan and that #property colleagues in particular have been critical (on a scale of comments ranging between “unworkable” and “unnecessary”).

From our tackling #highstreet vacancy perspective tho, we’ve always seen this as a valuable extra tool in the toolkit, but something that’s there as a last resort if the ‘place partnership’ approach doesn’t cut it in one or two cases.

But we hoped it would do two things:

• + encourage more town and city centres to get on the case and believe reducing their number of empty units and improving the mix of uses is something they can make a difference on (which it is);
• + demonstrate that by engaging with agents and landlords, places can make progress on helping get vacants back in play without actually needing to trigger the auction itself.

That was the early feedback from Lichfield as they updated council and other colleagues on a very well attended MHCLG webinar on Rental Auctions this week.

Early days, small sample and much more to come from the other authorities working on this, but still good to hear.

As our recently updated guide to tackling vacancy sets out, there can be a number of reasons why landlords aren’t progressing empty units as quickly as the place would like. Many of them are sound from their commercial, financial perspective – just not what the location wants to hear. Reaching out to them and setting out the potential for other stakeholders to help, can for sure help get the job done.

It’d be great to hear from other early adopter locations or #placemaking colleagues who’ve recently started a tackling vacancy journey…

And if you’d like a copy of the guide do please shout…!

Here’s something I’d love to get a take on from #highstreet #property colleagues, especially those working on acquisitions and new location requirements lists.

It’s a timing question.

Maybe one Ellen Peters and fellow Property Managers Association members can help with, bringing together as it does in-house property professionals for major #retail brands.

When you’re making a decision on whether to open up in a place are you taking into account demographics, footfall, spend data and the like from its past, from now or are you making a calculation looking ahead.

It’s a question sparked by having been in recent weeks and months in town and city centres that are what you might call “in transition”. Where maybe vacancy has been on the higher side but there’s a ‘place partnership’ on the case, those numbers are coming down or are about to, and there’s development, investment – aimed at bringing in new residential, office, health services, cultural uses etc – that will boost footfall and dwell time and so transform those key metrics you rely on.

So what’s your strategy…? Be an early adopter, take the opportunity when maybe rents are lower and the best units are available, or wait.

I know members of The Academy Network which brings together council and BID officers we’re working with on tackling vacancy would be interested to hear… 

The showcase screen in its central Keel Square suggests there’s plenty of words to choose from for Sunderland.

I’m going with “change” because sooooo much has since my visit 18 months back, with much more in the pipeline.

It’s exciting to see a city centre with such a lot happening and especially so – believing strongly in ‘place partnership’ working as we do – to talk through with #placemaking colleagues here how that approach is strengthening.

Even on a short walk-see there’s change to witness…

• + The exciting Culture House multi-purpose venue rising from the ground;
• + Scaffolding off two of the central area’s landmark buildings after careful restoration;
• + New #hospitality additions to the mix in Keel Square with another on the way;
• + Significant progress on the Riverside development which is creating a dynamic, carbon-neutral urban quarter;
• + A stunning new addition to the city’s #streetart collection which is part of an ongoing programme of creative public realm projects;
• …and more besides, with much else set to folllow in the months ahead.

From a pure tackling #highstreet vacancy perspective this is encouraging progress, as it means office, commercial, residential, health services and cultural development that helps deliver the increased footfall and dwell time that is so important to would-be new #retail occupiers.

And, as we’ll reflect in a future post, there are a variety of units, including a number in attractive, intriguing buildings, for both brand and independent shops to go for.

It’s for sure a city that’s very well worth a visit…!

Two #highstreet tackling vacancy-related policy changes emerge in a week.

Both described by specialists in that area of our work as “unexpected”.

One, around “community right to buy assets of community value”…

…the other a possible ban on upward-only rent reviews in commercial leases. To be fair words used to describe this one have sometimes, so far, been – let’s say – less charitable.

There’s a way to go until implementation for both before they join the other recent initiative out there – High Street Rental Auctions – so we’ll need wait to see the detail…

But in their own way each of the three are targeted at what are seen as potential barriers to getting empty units back into play and / or the issue around what uses empty units end up being taken on by, so could, should help…?

So what’s next…?

If you’re working as a ‘place partnership’ on trying to reduce the number of empty units or improving the mix of use types in your town or city centre, what would you ask for.

As those who’ve read the ‘manifesto’ we drafted around election time, we’ve a list, headed by this:

“Ask (and resource) every local authority to report on vacancy numbers twice a year, and work with agents, landlords, businesses, community and BID where there is one to overcome barriers to let…”

So over to you #property and #place making colleagues. What’s your number one policy or regulation change ask…?

So half way through the 2025 lettings season, how is your town or city centre faring.

Do you have national #retail or #hospitality brands taking on empty units.

Are there new independents setting up.

Or are you seeing use types from our alternative / additional go-to list: arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing making use of an opportunity to secure a #highstreet space.

It’d be great to get your updates…

…especially if you have a tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ on the case and it’s made a positive impact on some of the empty units you had.

We’ve been having some really interesting conversations with locations we’re supporting on ways to help move their trickier long-time vacants forward so it’d be good to swap notes.

Writing this just back from one of those places, Southend, where we saw a mix of recent lettings, a number of vacant buildings with works underway and positive signs of activity on some of the other empties…

A day that started getting an update on a very technical new tackling #highstreet vacancy power ended in a room brimming with Positives ideas…

…and both are crucial to giving us the varied and vibrant town and city centres we love to see.

Thanks to Ojay McDonald and Karen Shields at the Association of Town & City Management I was able to listen in as MHCLG’s Vicki Bidwell updated on the progress being made by early adopters of the new High Street Rental Auctions power. If you’ve missed that, it’s essentially a way for councils to get long-empty units up for rent to new occupiers.

The process does take some setting up so we’ve not yet seen any get to auction stage. But for me that’s not the point. What we are seeing is council teams connecting with #property owners. Landlords and agents reaching out. Empty units being put on the market for sale or to let or done up, and some of them getting new tenants.

In other words what’s effectively the ‘place partnership’ approach we’d like every location where vacancy is an issue to have in play.

Meantime, while we wait for policy and regulatory change to fully kick in – and I’d love to see us go quicker – our places continue to draw on the ideas, experience and expertise of place leaders and managers, imagining, collaborating, getting stuff done.

The first launch event of Laura Harris’s brilliant #HighStreetPositives campaign was a shining illustration of that.

Complex power. Positives energy. Very different approaches. Both getting us there…!