The proliferation of empty units is an unhappy by-product of the worst trading conditions for several decades. Shopping centre managers, landlords and letting agents are striving to get them filled but in the absence of a suitable tenant willing to sign a 10-year lease, there are other options. Short-term lettings to retail merchandising unit (RMU) operators, local university students and promotional brands are all options being explored by canny shopping centre operators.

“It’s a bigger issue now,” admits Paul Soanes, group development director at Promotion Space. “The conversation around voids tends to crop up in every new pitch we’re doing, whereas it hadn’t really been an issue up until recently,” he explains. Karl McKeever, founder of marketing company Visual Thinking, agrees that it is a relatively new problem, which requires creativity in order to tackle it successfully.

“Clearly, some of the smaller, independent retailers have found business very tough and have regrettably closed their doors as a result,” he says. “But also there have been a number of high profile casualties, such as Woolworths and Principles, all leaving gaps within malls.”

But every shopping centre is experiencing the downturn differently. Those in prime locations with loyal customer bases, and the marketing budget to attract new ones, may certainly still be growing footfall. However, it is likely to be the malls in secondary locations that experience difficulties enticing the public to step foot through their doors. “I think it’s one of those situations where it comes down to this old adage of ‘location, location, location’,” says McKeever.

What’s more, the problem is only likely to get worse, predicts BCSC executive director Edward Cooke. “In addition to thousands of retail properties becoming empty as big names like Whittard and Zavvi vacate the high street, about 2,500 post offices will be lost over the next 18 months, together with numerous bank closures – according to Experian an estimated 15 per cent of shops will be empty come Christmas,” he reports. “The resulting number of voids will have a devastating effect on the vibrancy of our town centres.”

If the rising tide of empty units is inevitable, how then can shopping centres fill their spaces with vibrant short-term tenants or events to ensure customers don’t get turned off by the gaps? “In the first instance, landlords need to recognise the impact of those vacant units within the shopping centre,” says McKeever.

“A customer wants to feel it is worthwhile to visit a particular mall. But if they go to that mall and they think 35 per cent of the scheme is empty, they might think twice about making another visit.” Soanes, of Promotion Space, concurs. “Voids give the impression – correctly or incorrectly – that the centre isn’t doing very well. If I was a shopping centre visitor and I saw an increasing number of voids, I’d potentially consider going elsewhere.”

There are, however, methods that can be employed to either temporarily fix, or at least mask the incremental number of voids within schemes. Promotion Space has seen an increased interest in the positioning of RMUs outside empty units and even the use of voids to hold promotional events.

For example, car manufacturer Volvo fitted out and used an empty unit for around a month to promote its brand. However, such events staged by car manufacturers are likely to become increasingly rare as the cost of fit-out to such a high standard is an unwelcome burden for companies in straitened times. Despite this, electronic brands such as EA Games, Nintendo and mobile phone companies are also a good bet for the Christmas period.

There are also options to fill the gaps between now and the seasonal spell. Promotion Space works with RMU tenants to dress the window of the vacant unit and then position the stall or cart outside. “What we’ll do is work with the centre and the tenants to create something that looks like it has been made for that window,” explains Soanes. “And quite often you get away with it; it doesn’t look like there’s a void there at all.”

Most important of all, says Soanes, is encouraging “joined-up thinking” between the stakeholders. “I think sometimes people work in silos,” he says. “There are people in the letting team that let empty shops, while there are people in the asset management team who worry about how the centre looks and maybe don’t talk to each other in terms of employing short term solutions to voids.”

The BCSC’s Ed Cooke agrees that there needs to be a joint effort but says he was impressed with the “innovative” use of empty units uses employed by BCSC members. “BCSC is keen to encourage partnership between landlords, retailers and the public sector to keep units in use, while looking at ways of addressing the problem in the longer term to reduce cost pressures on landlords,” he says.

Added to this, there are other creative opportunities which may help draw less attention to voids, while simultaneously helping strengthen relationships with existing tenants. “Landlords could turn over the window spaces to adjacent retailers, effectively doubling or tripling their display area,” he suggests.

One landlord has got creative in its use of an empty unit while simultaneously massaging community relations. The FH Mall in Nottingham – home to a variety of independent and national retailers including Vivienne Westwood and Caroline Castigliano – has entered into a partnership with Nottingham Trent University which will see students open a store on-site for six weeks. The shop, called ‘Decked Out’ will be run by a team of Decorative Arts students who will sell their own designs including jewellery, glassware and textiles.

As this project proves, gaps in retail offerings do not need to spell disaster for a shopping centre. With the correct guidance and co-operation from all stakeholders, short-term solutions can be successfully deployed in order to reduce exposure to empty rates, and the prospect of decay of the building through neglect. However, it is important to remember there is no silver bullet, says Soanes. “Unfortunately, there’s no magic wand.”