Aberdeen High Street revival tackles vacant shop crisis

The empty building that once housed Marks & Spencer in Aberdeen is among the first sights greeting visitors arriving off the train into the city centre. The signage is gone, though letter outlines remain, while windows are blacked out and doors boarded up. Emma Simpson, a business correspondent for the BBC, recalls spending hours as a teenager on Union Street, the city's main thoroughfare nicknamed the Granite Mile, browsing fashion stores.

The street was once packed with shoppers from across the north-east of Scotland, but it is now pockmarked with vacant stores. This mirrors a nationwide trend where high streets, formerly bustling with commerce, were hit initially by out-of-town retail parks and subsequently by the surge of online shopping.

The decline of traditional high streets is a global structural shift driven by e-commerce and changing consumer habits. Revitalising city centres requires coordinated public-private strategies, adaptive reuse of commercial real estate, and community-led placemaking rather than relying solely on traditional retail models.

Nevertheless, Aberdeen is in the middle of an ambitious turnaround strategy. The port city has taken a hands-on approach to filling vacant units and bringing neglected upper floors back into use, amid stark industry figures across the country.

Industry experts note that a major obstacle is fractured ownership, with properties divided among numerous landlords through complex structures, slowing down decision-making. Operating costs have also risen alongside declining footfall as shopping migrates online.

During Aberdeen's North Sea oil boom years from the late 1970s to the early 2010s, the city enjoyed effortless prosperity driven by energy wealth. However, by the end of 2022, Union Street hit rock bottom as locals shifted toward a new shopping centre opened in 2009.