Business owners could be offered up to £35,000 to revive empty shops on Union Street.
Aberdeen City Council has put aside a half-million-pound war chest, with hopes of drawing more trade back to the Granite Mile.
Taxpayer boons worth as much as £35,000 will be offered for work to “reconfigure” vacant ground floor units for retail, office, hospitality or cultural uses.
Grants will cover up to 50% of the cost of internal work on the refurbishments.
Chief city growth officer Richard Sweetnam said eligible projects would include installing new room partitions, kitchen and toilet installations and upgrading utilities.
Who will be entitled to apply for the Union Street empty shop grants?
Landlords with a confirmed lease or new tenants will be able to apply for the council scheme.
But, Mr Sweetnam told councillors in a report, the city is protected from subsidising big high street names, as well as some of the more unpopular recent additions to Union Street.
“Ineligible new businesses include large national chains (ie. Tesco, Boots, Starbucks), betting shops, sex shops, pawn brokers, tanning salons, tobacconists and vape shops,” he briefed.
Mr Sweetnam and chief finance officer Jonathan Belford will have final say on applications, along with finance convener Alex McLellan, if plans are approved on Wednesday.
The £500,000 fund will run through until March 2025.
If maximum £35,000 grants are dished out, the initiative would bring 14 premises back into use.
A recent survey by The Press And Journal counted 43 empty shops along the Granite Mile.
Grants part of wider effort to bring life back to Aberdeen’s Granite Mile
It comes amid growing efforts to turn around the fortunes of Aberdeen’s once illustrious main street.
The Our Union Street taskforce was consulted on the scheme, as were business improvement body Aberdeen Inspired, Aberdeen City Heritage Trust, the Federation of Small Business, Business Gateway and local commercial letting agents.
Mr Sweetnam said the core objectives of the work were reducing the number of vacant shops, leveraging private investment to bring them back into use and supporting new business start ups.
Last November, Specsavers aired troubles with “unfit” premises on offer on Union Street as the firm searched for a second shop on the street.
