Unlocking the potential of Union Street’s Upper Floors
Across many town and city centres, upper-floor spaces above shops and commercial premises remain vacant. While attention is often focused on empty ground-floor units, significant opportunities for regeneration can be overlooked in the spaces above them.
In Aberdeen, many upper floors along Union Street had become disconnected from the day to day life of the city centre. Traditionally used as offices or storage space, changing market demand had left many of these areas vacant, contributing to vacant and stalled sites.
The challenge was not simply one of vacancy. It was how to reimagine these spaces in a way that would support a more vibrant, resilient, and sustainable city centre.
Recognising the scale of the opportunity, Aberdeen Inspired, Aberdeen City Council, local businesses, property professionals, architects, and regeneration specialists came together to develop and invest in, a coordinated approach.
Building on a feasibility study of Union Street’s upper floors, a multidisciplinary technical panel was established to identify barriers to reuse and develop practical solutions. The panel brought together expertise in planning, conservation, architecture, property development, surveying, building standards, and commercial leasing.
Rather than viewing each vacant property as an isolated challenge, the initiative adopted a strategic place based approach. The focus was on understanding how multiple upper-floor spaces could collectively contribute to the future of the city centre.
Repurposing space
The project explored a diverse range of potential uses for upper-floor accommodation, including:
- Residential housing
- Hospitality and leisure uses
- Health and wellbeing services
- Arts and cultural activities
- Educational facilities
- Flexible workspaces
- Community and social enterprise activity
This mixed-use approach recognised that successful town and city centres require a balance of functions that attract people throughout the day and evening. By introducing more residents, services, and activities into the city centre, empty spaces could become active contributors to economic and social vitality.
Property owners, developers, council officers, business organisations, conservation specialists, and towns practitioners worked together to identify obstacles preventing reuse. By pooling expertise, the partnership was able to develop realistic and practical strategy to bring vacant spaces back into productive use.
The Upper Floors Project demonstrates how repurposing existing buildings can strengthen town centres without the need for new development, repurposing can support:
- Increasing city centre residential populations.
- Local businesses through increased footfall and spending.
- Reducing vacancy and improving perceptions of the area.
- Making better use of existing assets.
- Encouraging investment and confidence in the city centre.
- Supporting environmental sustainability through reuse rather than redevelopment.
- Creating a more diverse and resilient local economy.
By focusing on the reuse of underutilised space and aligning stakeholders around a shared objective, Aberdeen has developed a model that demonstrates how town centres can adapt to changing economic and social needs.
It is not just the built environment that is being embraced here, Our Union Street have added a digital layer with the introduction of the Our Aberdeen App. The app provides a mechanism to access Aberdeen digitally, to drive engagement and promote Aberdeen’s business sector. Complementing the campaign for mixed use occupancy of this vibrant street in Aberdeen.
Find out more about Our Union Street.
