“You could walk from one end of the High Street to the other and find building after building with upper floors being little used or not at all.”
“If you could get even a share of them back in play it could make a huge difference in terms of the look and feel of the town centre, its empty shops numbers and overall economy.”
“Trouble is – especially with conversion costs to meet regulations – you often find the business case for the landlord doesn’t stack up.”
Piecing together a number of conversations in recent weeks with agents and building owners has thrown a spotlight on the challenges around getting un- and under-used upper floors in our town and city centres occupied, but also on the benefits.
We’re thinking two types of unit here. Those that are totally vacant where you can find that the upper floors are a burden a would-be occupier doesn’t want to take if they’re really only interested in using the ground. The other kind is where the building is let on a single lease but its upper floors are barely used (maybe for staff rooms or storage) or not at all.
As we wrote in our tackling vacancy ‘next steps’ for one of the locations we’re supporting…
“There are a range of potential benefits including drawing extra footfall (especially having more people about in the evenings), ways to attract varying occupier use types, and the positive ‘look’ impact of improving those parts of buildings.”
Separating off the uppers and finding a use can also make it easier to let the ground floor so helping reduce your headline vacancy rate.
It’s one reason we’re keen supporters of having an upper floors version of the tackling vacancy grant schemes like those colleagues in Aberdeen, Belfast, Bristol & Crewe among others have put in place to try help overcome one of the big barriers to getting empty units let: the often high costs of getting the space in shape especially if that means for a different use to the one it had, and how – for landlord or tenant – that balances against return on investment.
What the teams in those locations have learned is 💯 something to draw on if this is an initiative you’re considering for your tackling vacancy work.
Do let us know…
