A Flurry of Deals to Lift City’s Vacancy Rates
Posted on 9th February 2012
A flurry of new deals in some of Preston’s hardest hit communities are set to give a lift to the battle against empty shops, with a surge of interest from people looking to take on units in areas such as Ribbleton, Fishwick and Penwortham, reports Joe Assalone, Partner at Robert Pinkus & Co.
It comes as new figures published by research body, The Local Data Company, shows 21% of shops in the city centre were empty by the end of 2011, an increase of 6.1% on 12 months earlier. The figures show the North as one of the hardest hit areas of the country with both Blackpool and Blackburn suffering vacancy rates of more than 25%.
Joe said, “There has been a flurry of activity since the turn of the year with people looking for reasonably priced units around these areas and the periphery of the city centre. Many of those looking are start up businesses which need something affordable to start off in and these areas suit them well.”
He denies that nearly one in five shops in the core city centre were responsible for the high figures. “If you look at Fishergate, either of the main shopping centres and Friargate, there are empty shops, but it’s not one in five. These figures are judged on postcodes and PR1 covers a much wider area than the city centre so it distorts the picture.”