Can Union Street ever recapture its peak, as it brimmed with people from the ground floor up?
Work to revitalise the Granite Mile has, so far, mostly focused on the eye-level.
Empty shops have been viewed as one of the first parts of the puzzle, as city leaders look to reintroduce the sparkle in the dulling high street.
But looking up, there are far fewer answers to be found on the upper floors – certainly none can be seen through their greasy, dusty windows.
“In its heyday, every building on Union Street was full from the ground level to the uppermost floors,” Aberdeen Inspired chief executive Adrian Watson tells The P&J.
“And we want to see it that way again.”
He’s asking the city for £15,000 to fund a survey to work out how the empty upstairs can play a part in that.
It comes only days after the Granite Mile was shaken by its latest big-name withdrawal.
Earlier this month M&S announced it would down double on Union Square, closing its iconic St Nicholas Street shop next spring.
What’s the plan for Union Street’s upper floors?
This plotted upstairs exploration is based on a hackneyed phrase rehearsed by all leading Aberdeen politicians of the last decade.
But the Union Street upper floors study could lend some new vim to the tired “Aberdeen is a place for people to live, work, study, play, shop” that usually ends up on the journalistic cutting room floor.
At the end of last year, the city council’s own property chief Stephen Booth parked Aberdeen own pilot project on upstairs redevelopment.
Hopes of developing an “exemplar” mix of upmarket apartments, offices and cafes at 101-103 Union Street are currently “unaffordable”.
With the council out of the game, bring in the guru
Meanwhile, Aberdeen Inspired wants to hire high street guru Iain Nicholson to size up the opportunity of bringing Union Street’s upper floors back into use – and identify the barriers to doing so.
Unveiled as Aberdeen Inspired’s “placemaking specialist” at the Union Street summit in 2022, Mr Nicholson’s work on empty shops informed where Our Union Street should start work.
But none of five action areas outlined by taskforce chief Bob Keiller is aimed, explicitly, above ground level.
Instead Mr Nicholson, founder of the Vacant Shops Academy, is being asked to look up.
If funded, he’ll examine potential uses for the upper floors of Union Street.
Those lofty lemons could be repurposed for residential, office, arts and culture, leisure, education, health and wellbeing, as well as retail, hospitality and services.
But the high street whizz will also report any limitations, for example whether mothballed premises upstairs can really be used for night-time trade if there’s limited separate access.
‘What exactly are the challenges concerning Union Street’s upper floors?’
Mr Nicholson claims he can help Aberdeen understand “exactly what the challenges are” for Union Street’s historic properties.
In turn, this could help the council, Aberdeen Inspired, Our Union Street and others work, strategically, with landlords, property agents, businesses, the community and would-be occupiers to fill them.
The buildings boffin tells us: “Unused and underused space on high street upper floors is an issue for town and city centres around the country, and it’s great to see Aberdeen exploring solutions.
“If we can overcome the barriers to getting those spaces back into use, there are benefits both in terms of the vitality of the place and the economics of property.
“It will help to reduce the number of vacant units but also, by reducing wasted space above occupied ground floor units, bring in more people who will become customers for new and existing businesses.
The city centre czar adds: “The challenge is that it’s often not easy either commercially or practically to repurpose and reuse these upper floors because of things like access, layout, lighting, storage and waste, especially where the buildings are listed.”
Surveyors previously estimated it would cost more than £11 million to bring Union Street up to scratch – and construction inflation since early 2022 is likely to have hiked up that eye-watering quote.
More than 100 along the Granite Mile are listed.
Who will pay for the Union Street upper floors study?
Aberdeen Inspired argues there’s presently a lack of tactics when it comes to the upper floors of Union Street.
“[There is] potential for a strategic approach to this issue rather than the mix of
no action and ad hoc activity that characterises the current situation,” project managers at the business improvement district (Bid) wrote.
Aberdeen Inspired, funded by the city centre levy, wants £15,000 of Aberdeen’s share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund for the survey.
The national cash pot is money divvied up between councils, meant to replace EU funding that might otherwise have funded similar strategic work.
The £15,000 will pay for a feasibility study, setting out a “a snapshot of the scale of unused and underused space on Union Street”.
It will be hoped to increase city centre footfall, a more diverse high street, improve the look of tired Union Street and benefit city coffers with bolstered business rates.
Work could also benefit landlords and property agents – as the council strains to find out the owner of long-empty buildings.
Could things be looking up for Union Street?
Our Union Street has laid on a spread of perks to draw business back to the Granite Mile.
That is on top of council grants worth tens of thousands of pounds to bring empty shops back into use.
And Aberdeen Inspired boss Mr Watson said the upper floors project would “dovetail” with the work to occupy the downstairs.
“It is right and proper there is a focus on what is happening at street level on Union Street, but bringing all those upper floors back to life with a mix of uses – especially residential – is just as vital,” he said.
“For any city centre to thrive it needs people living there, facilities and attractions for those residents and an attractive mix of uses that will bring people into the heart of Aberdeen.
“No one underestimates the challenges involved but this study would at least give us a clear idea of what they are and what the route might be to meeting them.”
Councillors will decide on Tuesday whether to fund the Union Street upper floors study.
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