A Stirling city centre retail unit, only occupied for 10 months since it was built in 2016, has cost the council almost £19,000, The Courier can reveal.
The empty Stirling Council-owned shopfront on Maxwell Place has sat unused for more than eight years overall, with only one previous tenant.
It was built as part of a £6 million development on Goosecroft Road and Maxwell Place, near Stirling railway station, with several commercial units at ground floor level and 53 affordable homes above.
The local authority told The Courier it has shelled out a total of £18,881.03 of public money to date on the unoccupied Maxwell Place shopfront.
An email sent in November 2017, more than a year after construction of the building was completed, describes the space as “effectively uneconomic to rent out”.
The message, obtained via a freedom of information request and sent to multiple Stirling Council staff members, continues: “The re-fit costs are such that a tenant such as a barber would not be viable and so we may need to take the hit and do some extra works via housing and reduce the rent-free period for the tenant to recover part of the costs.”
Barber shop fit-out completed in 2020
Permission to fit out the space as a barber shop was sought in February 2017 and granted in October 2018.
A delay to the fit-out was put down to “issues with procurement”.
The work was then carried out and completed around two years later.
Barber Red & Co set up shop there during October 2020, but left the premises in early-August 2021.
At the time, business owner Ed Kavanagh said he was looking for a “smaller more suitable premises in Stirling”.
Today, the Maxwell Place unit remains listed as available for lease on Stirling Council’s website.
The particulars price initial rent for the space at £13,000, excluding VAT, for the first year.
In year two, the tenant would be charged £14,000, then £15,000 for year three, followed by a rent review in the fourth year of occupancy.
This suggests the unit should have brought in over £100,000 in rent for Stirling Council since it was constructed.
In reality, it has cost the local authority more than a fifth of that figure.
A Stirling Council spokesperson said: “This business unit was previously occupied but was vacated by the tenant in August 2021.
“Negotiations with a new tenant are progressing towards conclusion.”
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