In London via Oxford to help showcase a pathfinding project from Aberdeen…
…but it’s an approach that we reckon could be taken up by many of the town and city centre teams that were represented at the Association of Town & City Management ‘Place Management Conference’.
Our part in the ‘Multi-Agency Approach to…’-themed day was ‘Bringing Long-Term Vacant Property Back Into Use’, and focused on Aberdeen’s Union Street Upper Floors project.
At the heart of it is bringing together council planners, building control or standards teams and conservation officers (for heritage buildings) with private sector architects, developers, property agents, BID where there is one, and others involved on this issue locally, to ‘get the keys’ and go look inside those large, sometimes long-time vacant, maybe deteriorating empty buildings.
Together they’ll consider occupier options, assess barriers to getting the space back into use and importantly the role each partner can play to help make that happen.
As our Team Aberdeen panellists explained in really insightful comments and answers, it’s a positive way to go and there, as in other places starting to use the approach, they’re seeing encouraging progress including on some buildings that have lain vacant for a looooong time.
It’d be great to hear from other places working on this already, and especially from colleagues who’d like to understand how it might work in your town or city centre.
Do let us know…!
