Project case study: Indie Durham City phase 2 - Retail Cupid

In a nutshell

It’s all about working together to do what is best for the city.
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As the first phase of the Indie Durham City project reached its four-year milestone in early 2024 – after initially being set up for six months during the Covid pandemic – the Business Committee of City of Durham Parish Council asked us to provide an updated proposal for ongoing project delivery, focusing on where we could add the greatest value.

It was therefore agreed that from July 2024 we would focus on our “Retail Cupid” work in Durham city centre.

This involves matchmaking occupants with vacant premises – as we had already done very successfully since 2020 – and acting as a key point of contact for independent and national businesses wishing to trade in the city.

Alongside, we are also continuing to maintain the Indie Durham City social media accounts, to share updates about our own work and to amplify posts by key partners in the city, such as Durham BID and Durham Markets.

Our work in Durham now comprises one day a month of activity, rather than the three days that were delivered at the phase 1 stage.

The Parish Council funding for our time – currently confirmed until March 2025 – means that there is no cost to any of the businesses we talk to, and no commission paid when we score a success.

Rather, it’s all about working together to do what is best for the city: providing support to retain existing businesses and attract new ones, and filling as many vacant units as possible with businesses that enhance and enrich the city centre offer.

What we’re doing

Crush Wines in Durham is one of the businesses we helped matchmake with premises

Our Retail Cupid support is available free of charge to help matchmake any business with available premises in Durham city centre.

It is a proactive approach to tackling the issue of vacancy at the same time as supporting and encouraging local enterprise.

Our Retail Cupid support… is a proactive approach to tackling the issue of vacancy at the same time as supporting and encouraging local enterprise.
CannyInsights.com

We do this by drawing from our excellent network of connections across the North East and beyond – including with commercial landlords, property agents, the local business community, and national brands – as well as from our rich, detailed and well-documented knowledge of high-street trends across the UK.

Though our project is called Indie Durham City, our Retail Cupid support is available to both multiple and independent businesses, given that many visitors to Durham – and independent traders themselves – wish to see a blend of familiar brands in the city centre alongside shops that you cannot find anywhere else.

Similarly, our support is not necessarily restricted to retail – businesses that we have helped match with premises up to now include a bookshop and a jeweller, but also restaurants, a wine bar, and an auction house.

We work with businesses looking to trade in Durham for the first time, but also with those already in the city who, for whatever reason, are seeking alternative or additional premises.

What impact we’re having

Graham (right) checked in with the Brilliant Auctions team at their successful valuation day in Durham

Since the start of Indie Durham City phase 2 in July 2024, new arrivals in which we had a hand include Crush Wines, whose premises we identified and suggested, and Sunderland-based Brilliant Auctions, who we matched up with the owner of Café at the Quarter at Prince Bishops Place. Thanks to that introduction, Brilliant Auctions has now held the first of three valuation days in the café‘s upstairs space, and has its first in-person auction taking place there in January.

One expanding retailer with a national presence contacted us the same evening that a particular unit in Durham city centre became available following the collapse of the business that had been trading there. This retailer has now viewed the premises, and a decision is pending. We have shared our objective thoughts and advice – with the retailer responding “thanks so much for the detailed insight into Durham and your expert opinion” – and offered the CEO a tour of the city centre to help get a deal over the line.

We have put another national chain in touch with one of the city’s retail schemes, with the retailer reporting an “exciting” meeting. Even if the chances of that turning into a future letting are small, the mere fact that there is now a conversation opens up a possibility where one did not exist before.

Presently, we remain in conversation with at least two more national retailers and several local independents that wish to trade in the city, but, as things stand, are still seeking premises of a suitable size, location or price.

We recently met with a retailer currently in temporary premises in the city centre – it would like to stay where it is, but is considering other options in case that is not possible. Now we know its requirements, we can keep our eyes open for suitable matches and will share these details with the business as soon as we find them.

We communicate regularly with various of the commercial property agents who work in Durham, to build an understanding of which units are still available, and that we can usefully promote or refer enquiries too.

From talking to agents about why certain properties are still vacant, or no longer advertised, we can also better understand what the barriers to filling those premises might be. By sharing our findings with the Business Committee, we also inform the Parish Council’s understanding of the high-street landscape.

Though many of the landlords and agents in Durham are based in the region, so have a good understanding of the city and what it needs, there is always a danger that units will end up let to tenants that do not add much value to the city’s offer – or, in some cases, even detract from it. By engaging us as an independent and objective Retail Cupid, City of Durham Parish Council is able to more proactively influence and curate the diverse mix of uses that it, and other place leaders, wish to see in the city centre.