Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
City owns seven-year empty unit
A RETAIL unit which lay vacant in Dundee city centre for more than seven years is owned by Dundee City Council.
The building at 7 Castle Street had been unoccupied since October 2016 before it was taken over by Creative Dundee earlier this year on a short-term basis.
An investigation by the Tele into who owns the long-term vacant retail units on the high street revealed the building belongs to Dundee City Council, which first registered it in 1999.
When the Tele purchased the property deeds of 18 long-term vacant units in early February the building was still empty.
It was the property which had remained unoccupied the third longest within the city centre having been empty for 7.4 years after Keiller’s China Shop moved out.
The Tele has been tracking empty retail units for almost a year.
The council says it tried to market the property but the Covid19 pandemic delayed renovations to the unit.
The lockdown resulting from the coronavirus outbreak began more than three years after the shop was last in use.
A Dundee City Council spokesperson said: “The property was in need of refurbishment after it was vacated, but due to the impact of Covid-19 this work was delayed and was not completed until December 2022.
“The council actively marketed the property since then, but there are challenges facing city centres across the UK regarding the leasing of vacant retail units.”
Creative Dundee said: “We are using this unit to pilot an adaptable space which offers creative coworking alongside an events programme.”