Wandering our nearest town centre and wondering: if it ran a survey of residents and businesses to ask what they’d like to see take on its empty #highstreet unit opportunities, what answers we’d get.
What would be the response if you asked residents and businesses the same in your town or city centre…?
It’s not a place we’ve ever run our tackling vacancy approach so the backstory and barriers to let of the vacants it has is intriguing.
It does have…
+ A mix of national #retail and #hospitality brands;
+ Strong representation of banks and building societies;
+ A diverse and growing number of food & drink outlets;
+ Established independents including an award-winning bookshop;
+ A convenience offer with new multicultural additions;
+ Health & beauty, salons, coffee shops, bookmakers and charity shops are well represented;
+ It’s one of the places that’s added a library, hotel, co-working, health services, refill store and a makers collective to the mix.
It has a world-renowned out-of-town outlet village marking its 30th birthday plus a new M&S, Next-led shopping zone, two rail stations, and a major, edge-of-town housing development adding to its population.
Interestingly for this conversation it also has a number of vacant units, different sizes and condition, some of those longtime now, many of them large ex- national brand stores or former banks.
So what would our survey say people would like to fill them…? Does that match what this market town might attract. And how might a ‘place partnership’ get there quicker.
What do you think…?
