With the number of high street vacancies soaring, Retail Week looks at the interesting tactics some landlords have used to fill empty units.

The latest figures from BRC and Springboard’s Footfall and Vacancies Monitor showed that the number of empty shops was at its highest level since 2015.

This is bad news. Not only do empty shops affect the aesthetic of a town - with boarded up windows and broken signs – it has a knock-on effect on footfall. Fewer shops means fewer people which makes an area less attractive for prospective - and existing - tenants, and the vicious circle starts over.

Retail Week shines a spotlight on how landlords have thought differently to fill empty shops.

Start-up space

Once a bleak high street, Willesden Green was transformed thanks to a regeneration experiment on Queens Parade.

A run of empty units have been let out to various start-ups looking to get their business off the ground without the burden of crippling overhead costs.

Run by social enterprise Meanwhile Foundation, which sources empty spaces and opens them up to creative types, start-ups and charities with flexible terms at affordable prices, Queens Parade was voted as one of nine best shopping locations in London after just two months of opening by Time Out readers.

Originally Queens Parade opened in 2012 as an Outer London Fund Project – a three-year initiative launched by Boris Johnson, when he was Mayor of London in 2011, dedicated to strengthening the growth of London’s high streets - but the Meanwhile Foundation took over the project in 2016 after previous funding was cut.

The Meanwhile Foundation ensures that each new project brings something new and vibrant to the north-London high street. To date 25 start-ups, six charities and 47 individuals have had a chance to test their ideas out in the empty units on Queens Parade.

The stretch of retail units painted blue and pink have included a florist, a hand-made gifts shop, charity shops, an art gallery and a juice bar and has helped produce a number of success stories.

Ariane Prin - FROM HERE FOR HERE

Artist Ariane Prin - who makes pots from rust particles - has exhibited her work around the world including the Barbican Centre, The Royal College of Art and Paris Design Week after showing her work in one of the Queens Parade units.

A hairdressing training academy for young BAME students has now moved to a permanent space in Brixton and Eaoifa Forward went from making Kombucha in her bedroom before moving to Queen’s Parade in 2018 - and is now moving to a purpose-built unit in south London to accommodate her growing business. 

Seven years later, the vibrant and ever-changing street has now been short-listed in the 2019 Great British High Street awards.

The landlord has been trying to obtain planning permission to redevelop the site since 2012 - and finally received confirmation earlier this year for student housing with retail units below - but during that time has benefited from a maintenance and business rates free period.

BHS turns into the UK’s largest food hall

Even landlords of property high streets as bustling as Oxford Street have struggled to fill empty units of late. There have been many high profile closures on the famous shopping street recently including Miss Selfridge, HMV and BHS.

The BHS store at Oxford Circus is a big unit to fill, especially with few large store retailers, such as department stores, opening new space.

Landlord Lance Asset Management decided that dividing the space and looking for tenants outside of retail would help it fill the empty property.

Although the 106,000 sq ft ground floor is rented to Polish retailer Reserved the other floors have been leased to food and leisure retailers.

Market Hall will open the UK’s largest food hall over three floors in the building this Friday.

Covering 35,000 sq ft, the space houses 11 independent food traders, from dim-sum to tacos to vegan cuisine and houses 1,000 diners over the three storeys. The entrance is situated on Holles street and covers the ground, part of the first floor and second floor.

Meanwhile, crazy golf firm Swingers, which has one other outlet, has opened two nine-hole crazy golf courses, two bars covering 20,000 sq ft - also on the first floor with its entrance on John Prince’s Street.

Bakery

Bread in Common was opened in 2014 by Stoke-on-Trent community group B-Arts.

With help from the Empty Shops Network, which helps devise, create and deliver projects by sharing resources and offering expert advice, the organisation was able to negotiate a rent-free agreement that meant they could use the space for the community-run bakery.

Bread in Common has become a hub for the community offering bread making workshops to children and adults, a bakery offering fresh local produce and place to meet friends and family.

Empty Shops Network founder Dan Thompson says: “If you want an example of how you can create that mixed-use the town centres need they’ve done it all in one building.

“The bigger sites we now see becoming empty are going to be really difficult to reuse because they’re too big for independent shops, but they’re not big enough for the likes of Primark.”

Bread in Common’s appeal is still rising. Its workshops are sold out until next year and it now offers a catering option for events.

Shop gallery CGI

The Shop Gallery has just launched to help turn empty shops into art galleries. The firm acts as an intermediary connecting the landlords of empty retail spaces with artists and designers to showcase their work.

Art galleries

The Shop Gallery has just launched to help turn empty shops into art galleries. The firm acts as an intermediary connecting the landlords of empty retail spaces with artists and designers to showcase their work.

It negotiates a deal so both landlord and artist benefit.

The Shop Gallery co-founder Billy Wright says: “”We take the empty space utilising the shop window on a standard licence agreement for a minimum of 6 weeks. The shop itself is not open, it is purely a street-level gallery as well as a marketing tool for the landlord and agent.

“The pieces are available to purchase through us when we vacate, the landlord then benefits from a 3 months business rate free period.

“The rates free period is granted by the local authority upon our vacation and the landlord taking back the unit but the landlord pays the rates during the occupation,” Wright says.