Struggling US downtowns could take a cue from a small town in England that gave businesses rent-free space

• The UK is experimenting with offering small businesses free rent to revitalize downtown districts.
• The English town of Poole has seen a jump in downtown foot traffic following its initiative.

As many American downtowns struggle to come back to life in a remote-work world, they might want to look across the pond for inspiration.

Several small towns in the UK have experimented with giving small businesses rent-free shop space over the last few years. Many of those businesses are now thriving and have helped attract visitors and shoppers back into relatively empty downtowns, according to multiple recent news reports.

In the English seaside town of Poole, a major asset management company, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), rented 10 storefronts spaces at no cost for two years to a diverse set of small businesses on a depressed shopping street in the city center.

The commercial street, called Kingland Crescent, has since made a remarkable turnaround and is attracting significantly more foot traffic and patrons. Foot traffic is up 16% over pre-pandemic levels, The Guardian reported. And the small business owners — five of which are now paying to rent their spaces — were given an opportunity to grow that they might not otherwise have had. The shopping street now features a gin bar, a plant store, a restored furniture shop, and a coffee shop.

"It was a dirty, funny walkway with boarded-up shops. Now it's vibrant, upbeat, colourful," Hope Dean, the owner of a plant shop that was one of the 10 businesses given free rent, told The Guardian.

But the initiative is no charity project.

"We're not just doing this to do a nice thing for the people of Poole," Matt Soffair, a retail researcher at LGIM, told the Times. "We are also doing this because we do believe that in the long term, all these initiatives will create cash flow."

Other UK downtowns are adopting a similar model. The Westminster City Council is starting a £10 million program to give small businesses rent-free space, as well as marketing and store-design help, on Oxford Street — a busy downtown shopping avenue in the West End of London. The initiative is designed to replace "low quality" existing shops, including American candy stores, with "innovative local businesses," BBC News reported.

Some US cities have pursued similar downtown revitalization initiatives. Denver offered free rent and services valued at $20,000 to businesses willing to use empty space in the city's downtown, and San Francisco has offered free rent and grant money to pop-up businesses in its downtown.