Delays cost £50,000
Financial hit for Stirling Council
Delays in leasing shop units below a new block of city centre flats have cost Stirling Council £50,000.
The council’s environment and housing committee heard on Thursday that the income from commercial property rents was £50,000 under budget due to the delay in filling the shops on Goosecroft Road.
Officers told councillors they were “extremely confident” that they would soon be filled.
They added: “We have actually subdivided one of the shops so there will be four rather than the original three. We are in the closing stages of leasing three out of the four.”
In February, however, the committee heard that all but one of the units on the block, opposite Stirling Railway Station, had either seen a lease being signed or a deal close to being done.
At that time council officials said: “The buildings themselves have been advertised and marketed.
“Most of the units have now been signed up.
“We have leases agreed for all the units bar one. Once we have the units occupied hopefully the final one will go. When they are all lying empty it probably reduces the interest.
“When we built them at first we thought the obvious types of business might be the likes of Tesco Express or convenience stores but that’s not the market we got at all. It’s very different to what we anticipated.”
In July the council confirmed that all three were currently under offer, however would not comment further due to “commercial sensitivities”.
The £6million showpiece affordable housing development features 53 one- and two-bedroom flats at the corner of Goosecroft Road and Maxwell Place - designed for those who are content to live car-free.
The block was built by CCG (Scotland) Ltd on behalf of Stirling Council and their partners Steadfast Homes and Stirling Development Agency.
Artwork panels on the side of the building represent period cameras and film projectors as the site used to be occupied by a cinema. The artwork was by artist Andy Hazell and commissioned by Creative Stirling.