“It’s brand new, quite luxurious – and on top of it all, affordable,” Mark Anderson smiles as we weave our way up the stairs at 173 Union Street.
Just a year ago, the prominent building in Aberdeen city centre had been “more or less falling apart” – having lain desolate and in need of urgent repairs for decades.
It took Mark and fellow Cater Group masterminds, father and daughter Steve and Vivien Choi, months to strip the grotty upper floors above the Santander bank.
There are now no signs of the rotten ledges, the crumbling walls and the mess left by pigeons, which would often sneak their way in through the window cracks.
Instead, these have been replaced by polished marble kitchen tops, dark-oak furniture and a fresh coat of white paint.
And the developers hope this transformation could be a major step forward in efforts to breathe new life into Union Street, getting more people living in the city centre.
How dilapidated Union Street offices came to be luxury new flats
The paint in the recently renovated foyer of the newly named Union Residence has barely dried out as I’m taken on a tour of the listed building.
I’m first led into a spacious one-bed flat facing the city’s main thoroughfare.
This is one of six luxury flats – four of which are two-bed – that Cater Group has recently created.
The firm purchased the property back in 2019, however, the project remained in limbo for years due to issues with planning permissions.
It wasn’t until Steve got involved as a property manager in 2022 that the scheme took off.
The 49-year-old instantly saw the huge potential of the building.
“It’s been a long-time coming,” Steve tells me as he shows me around the plush pad, just three weeks on from the work finishing.
“There have been loads of challenges – including bringing the building up to scratch as there were a lot of structural issues and damage that needed to be addressed.
“If you had seen it on day one, you could have never imagined this could actually be achieved – but here it is brought back to life from the ashes.
“And when we get people in, that would be another milestone.”
‘We have an opportunity to breathe life into Union Street – let’s take it’
The trio have high hopes they are setting an example others could follow in revitalising vacant space on the Granite Mile.
Our Union Street has long pushed for more developers to take a leap of faith and invest in bringing disused upper floors back to life.
And an independent expert was recently drafted in to carry out some research on how exactly each could be transformed.
Mark, operations manager at Cater Group, takes a glance out of the window and reflects on Union Street’s glory days.
“This used to be the heartbeat of the city, and it’s been a shame to see it getting worse and worse in recent years,” he says.
“We want to help get the city back to what it used to be.”
Drive to make Union Street affordable for all people
Mark reckons the solution to the high street problem lays in turning the empty upper floors into high-end – but affordable enough – flats.
In fact, they are adamant these flats aren’t up for sale. They want to make sure plenty of people could afford to live in one of these tasteful new properties.
They are already on the market, with rents of £800 per month for a one-bed and £1,250 for two-bedroom apartments.
This will include access to an on-site gym once it’s completed by next May, parking and superfast broadband.
Mark adds: “We are not doing this for the money. We are doing it to bring people back into the city centre, so making them high-end but affordable was crucial for us.
“If all of the units above the shops are converted into flats, that will obviously increase footfall onto Union Street and then subsequently into the businesses here.”
What’s next for the group trying to revitalise abandoned city spots?
And the flats at 173 Union Street are not the group’s final spot.
Next door, they are working on 15 flats for Hillcrest Homes at 181 Union Street. These are due to be completed by May next year.
Across Aberdeen, they have lots of other projects at various stages.
“The list is long,” Mark and Steve chuckle.
“Our city has been through a lot and it’s certainly in need of a facelift, but we’ve got a chance to turn that tide and make it into something good again.”
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- Plans to turn grotty offices into plush pads could boost Aberdeen’s Union Street
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