Landlords & Empty Spaces
Landlords are integral to the success of any Empty Spaces-style project and participating leads to a number of positive outcomes. Having someone occupying your empty property can:
- Reduce vandalism, squatting and other illegal activity
- Lower or even eliminate some maintenance costs
- Lead to lower insurance costs - occupied properties are generally cheaper to insure
- Grow the long-term value of the property – creative activity and cutlural vitality in an area can push up property prices
- Avoid devaluation of property – cheap leases can ‘devalue’ property on paper as property values are assessed on lease values
- Attract visitors and footfall to 'Renew' a local area
- Renew interest from commercial tenants
Generally, being a part of an Empty Spaces project or initiative means:
- Providing your empty space for a creative venture on a temporary basis
- You decide which specific projects you want to host and when you want to end the arrangement
- Negotiating a licence agreement (a contract) to allow access to the space – this does NOT trigger the statutory obligations, rights, costs and responsibilities for either party that are required for a lease
- No ‘opportunity cost’ for participating in the scheme
- The occupier keeps the space clean and presentable, pays all outgoings associated with their occupancy (such as water, gas and electricity bills), keeps it open as required and takes care of the building until you want it back
Find an Empty Space initiative in your area.
Frasers Property & Queen Street Studio (Sydney)
A template for partnerships between developers and arts producers, proving the point that this type of temporary activation is 'possible, mutually beneficial and extraordinarily rewarding'.
GPT Group & Renew Newcastle
A true partnership that has infused life back into Newcastle's city centre and has been the cornerstone of the new Hunter Street Outlets design theme.
Supa Centre Art Project (Tuggerah)
Empty shopfronts provided a chance for white good shoppers to experience local art while a shopping mall reinvented its market.
Ramesh Thakur & Renew Newcastle
Ramesh Thakur offered his empty shop to independent record store, Vox Cyclops, and would recommend the experience to other landlords with empty properties.