Much media coverage has rightly congratulated the success of the Fleadh a number of weeks ago, with many commentators detailing how it regenerated Belfast city centre and brought into play several disused buildings and sites that hadn’t been utilised for many years.
Some commentary also suggested that the spaces should be brought back into that use as they created excellent spaces for entertainment, together with food and beverage, in a unique setting.
But reusing that space for that particular use is not straight forward and brings all sorts of complications with Northern Ireland’s relatively outdated licensing laws, and indeed when is the next time that we will see over a million people gather in the city centre.
In more normal days, various previously unused premises such as the Common Market and Bone Yard have successfully attracted food and beverage operators, and in reality, our public houses and restaurants already face severe trading conditions without further space being added ad hoc.
That said, it was fantastic to see buildings being used and a more permanent solution is necessary to bring our building fabric back into economic use.
Over the past number of years, several of our disused offices have been reinvented for medical use and consulting rooms and this trend is now likely to also involve retail space that is currently underutilised or vacant.
Featured on BBC’s One Show recently, the Barnsley Project detailed a pioneering scheme in South Yorkshire, relocating a hospital outpatients and diagnostic centre into a former Wilko store, inside the Alhambra shopping centre, where shoppers can become patients and receive eye tests, minor eye surgeries, dermatology care and various scans and diagnostic procedures without visiting the main hospital.
The challenges within the retail sector are widely reported and we have all seen the death of many large space users and department stores. Healthcare can offer a huge amount in this respect with medical centres in shopping centres not only acting as a community benefit but as a significant driver for footfall.
A further benefit to the landlord and to visitors is that a health centre will encourage other complimentary users such as dentists, opticians, pharmacies, physios and other testing centres to locate nearby.
Most importantly the space can be used for hospitals and care centres when the cost of building them from scratch is currently untenable.
The trend has already happened in the US, where the death of the shopping mall was well documented, an excellent example being One Hundred Oaks Mall in Nashville where the entire second floor of over 440,000 sq ft become occupied by the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre.
In England change allowing a change of use from retail to other uses has been supported by an actual change in the Use Classes Order, which is a planning instrument. Effectively the planning law has been changed so that shops can now be used for medical use without lengthy planning applications.
The Use Classes Order in Northern Ireland has not been reviewed or renewed since 2015 and in my view is totally out of date. It effectively restricts new uses into vacant and derelict properties, which would encourage reuse, redevelopment and repositioning.
Brian Lavery
If we had wider uses being accepted under planning legislation here, which cause no harm to business areas, then this might also lead to further use of the vacant spaces as evidenced so successfully on a temporary basis during the Fleadh.
- Brian Lavery is managing director at CBRE NI