Decentralizing the High Street: A Scalable Community-Driven approach to vacant space
This article proposes a new operating system for vacant High Street spaces
Brick and mortar stores are under pressure. 50,000 shops lie empty and that number is increasing daily. This article will outline a proposal for a new operating system for high street spaces. It will combine technological, social and financial approaches to show how landlords can work with citizens to fill vacant spaces. For ease of reference, I’ll refer to this new operating system as High Street OS from here on in.
The problem with chains
In chemistry and physics, the longer the chains, the greater the impact of a chain reaction. In the housing market, prospective buyers prefer homes with no onward chain. Generally, systems with longer chains carry greater systemic risk.
The problem is the high street is dominated by long chains. Global brands leverage economies of scale and logistical expertise to open shops more easily than independents.
Lots of people dislike chains for different, but related reasons. It’s common to hear “I don’t go to the mall because it’s all the same shops everywhere”. Nobody likes a placeless place.
This solution aims to allow for those economies of scale, but without the homogeneity, and associated monoculture of high street brands. A more resilient high street should include, fewer, diversified, localized chains.
Spaces that program themselves.
Global approaches fail to respond to the nuance of local communities and demographies. Typically, the contents of the high street are decided by a small group. Entrepreneurs, well-meaning third sector organizations, developers, artists seek to intuit what local residents might prefer. Sometimes correctly, other times incorrectly.
But, the high street is our collective space. Its contents would be better decided collectively and democratically. Spaces must be able to respond quickly to the tastes and preferences of communities.
High Street OS seeks to provide the infrastructure for these decisions to be made publically. A voting system enables local adaptive spaces that respond to the nuances of local communities. Mobile apps can democratize the decision-making process.
High Street OS makes novel uses of the space possible. Uses that are beyond present conception and outside the boundaries of closed decision-making processes.
Blank slate > Design
Resisting the temptation of design allows the possibility of collective authorship. We create conditions for spaces to develop their own narratives. This approach reconceives shops as stages and platforms. Similarly to platforms like the Boiler Room and NTS, streaming can allow content from high street spaces to broadcast into the virtual world.
Platform Co-operatives
Most high street chains operate extractive models where profits are distributed to shareholders typically outside the local community. Co-operatives present an alternative model, where wealth is distributed to shareholders within the community. Indeed, the co-op as we know it started in a single shop in Rochdale circa 1844 and scaled into a global movement.
This powerful old idea can be adapted to respond to the modern challenges of the digital age. With the rise of platform capitalism and the tendency of digital platforms toward monopoly, we must be careful not to further exacerbate social inequality.
HighStreet OS employs a platform co-operative financial model. The aim is to foster the creation of community wealth. Today, technology has reduced the friction needed to administer and manage fractional asset sales.
It’s important local citizens have skin in the game. The potential rise (and fall) of share prices will incentivize citizens to engage in the space instead of competitive activities. This model can be extended to other community assets local services and businesses. In the future, a local resident might have shares in a portfolio of several community assets in their neighbourhood.
Build creative talents and social relationships
The skills and talents of the community are the most valuable, and least utilized resource in development. Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) promotes sustainable development that is based on the strength and potential a community already has.
That is the relationships, skills, and gifts each individual possesses. High Street OS enables local people to harness these assets by creating a profile and sharing projects, skills, and interests.
Collaboration is enabled through chat functionality.
There isn’t too much detail here since profiles and messaging are pretty commonplace. The key is using these typologies in a hyper-local context.
Meanwhile uses, alternatives to rent and making it work for landlords
Getting hold of spaces is a big challenge. Some landlords might over-estimate the risks and devalue the benefits of Meanwhile Uses. From the individual landlord's perspective, a tenant who pays a traditional Tennant (e.g. a chain grocery store) who can pay a stable rent and signs onto a 10-year lease presents less risk than a more experimental Tennant. Assuming no extreme events, e.g. the proliferation of the internet and the impending retail apocalypse.
For traditional landlords, a stronger argument comes from a tax reduction standpoint. A short-term occupancy strategy (45 days) may reduce there rates liability. Meanwhile uses are becoming more popular, but some landlords still might not have come across them. Fortunately, The Governments’ Meanwhile-use notes provide some guidance for these types of leases.
For institutional landlords with placemaking or social objectives, there may be more of an appetite to try more experimental, experiential uses. In an ideal world, these landlords might allow a turnover rent. In this case, rent is paid variably as a percentage of revenue the business makes, rather than a fixed fee.
This approach seems to better align incentives and gives landlords a stake in the success of your business. The downside is the possibility of little rental income if the business doesn’t perform well, but the alternative is a vacant space where no rent is certain. On the plus, there is the potential uncapped upside. If one great tenant has a great month they may cover the rent for an entire year.
The whole makes the parts.
The high street existed before shops, and will continue to exist afterward. As social beings, we need places to interact as much as we need to eat and sleep. This current shift isn’t so much an apocalypse as a rebirth.
Yes, the challenge is stark. the loss of 85,000 retail jobs is significant and will have widespread repercussions in towns and cities. But, in the face of this rising tide why not be radical, systemic and transformative?
Get in touch
If you’d like to help develop some of these ideas in practice. Maybe you're a landlord with space, a technologist who wants to works on something impactful or an architect/designer with a focus on community —hit me up.
gam@resolvecollective.com
Note to reader
The future is uncertain.
Hopefully, the tone of the above piece is well-thought, knowing and defined. I want to make it easy for you to understand the thoughts so you can agree/disagree with them.
But, I also hope you read this writing to be indefined. Indefinite, unlimited, unknowing. There are typos, grammatical errors, assertions. But this[life] is a continuous, imperfect, work-in-progress, and only the all-knowing gets to read the final draft.
Anti-author.
