The Brewery Quarter in Cheltenham mixes leisure and retail premises
overarching single land owner in place that is able to make big and important strategic and holistic decisions for the good of the retail offering as a whole. “This can include facilitating and in many instances funding, festivals, activities and specialist bespoke events. “Outlet operators will fund and facilitate experienced based activities, such as the Christmas ice rink at Gloucester Quays, increasing footfall by as much as 20 per cent. “All those extra people would have used the other facilities while they were there and spread the word to friends and family.The result is increased ‘spend’ in the retail outlets. “Developments like Christmas ice rinks require significant initial investment in the first few years. “However, in time they become self-sufficient and self-funding. The increased footfall funds the activity, whilst generating increased sales for retailers. “What a high street doesn’t have is that overarching organisation to take the lead and think of the big picture. A BID or the LEP or even the local authority can, it doesn’t matter who. “But someone needs to provide that leadership and vision in order to properly plan ahead to give people a reason to go to the high street and to keep them coming back.” Giving people that reason is only one part of the battle, however.
Perhaps the biggest battle is for the one set of stakeholders that have enjoyed the high street boom the longest, to realise that times have changed and prices need to follow suit. While high street occupiers need to evolve and offer their customers what Mr Jones calls “an experience” that they can’t buy online, those who own the buildings need to change too. “Landlords have had it too good for too long,” Mr Jones said. “If those landlords don’t start to think imaginatively, then they will lose out. “There needs to be a multi-functional approach and that will require some imagination both from the owners and the local authorities too. “Take the Brewery in Cheltenham as an example of how quickly this is evolving. “When that was at the design stage, it was envisaged that ground and much of the first floor areas would be occupied by retailers. “That has been changed in the years since and now we have SLG occupying a huge office space and Hub 8 with co-working office space in there too. “People thought that office space wouldn’t work because it was too reliant on parking, but those two examples show that town centre quality office space can work. “And when people are working in an area they wander around it too. That creates vibrancy and people like being in vibrant, interesting and busy places. “Authorities have to realise – and some are – that
December 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com | 81
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