Reactivating the High Street through Sustainable Retrofit

St George’s Tech Co-Working is a public-sector led regeneration project that reimagines vacant retail units within Gravesham town centre as a high-quality, future-ready workspace for local SMEs, start-ups and digital businesses. Designed as a low-carbon retrofit rather than new build, the project demonstrates how local authorities can unlock economic, social and environmental value from existing assets while directly supporting town-centre recovery Project Dashboard.

Working across RIBA Stages 2 and 3, the design transforms Units 24–27 of St George’s Centre into a flexible co-working hub offering 52 workstations, meeting rooms, focus pods, podcast facilities and shared amenities. The spatial strategy is deliberately user-centric, zoning the plan from more public, sociable areas at the shopping street edge to quieter, focused workspaces deeper within the floorplate. This approach maximises productivity, supports different working styles and activates the high street through visual permeability and footfall

From a placemaking perspective, the project directly responds to local evidence: vacancy rates of 13.4% in Gravesham town centre and strong public demand for more vibrant, mixed-use high streets. The scheme is forecast to support over 400 creative and digital jobs, improve occupancy rates and extend tenancy periods—reducing voids and stabilising rental income for the asset owner. For local authorities, this translates into a repeatable model that aligns economic development, employment and regeneration objectives within a single intervention Project Dashboard.

Sustainability is embedded as a commercial driver rather than an add-on. A fabric-first retrofit upgrades the building from EPC D to EPC B, reducing operational energy consumption by approximately 40% and cutting space-heating demand to 15 kWh/m²/yr. Reuse of the existing structure, combined with demountable partitions and a low-carbon fit-out strategy, delivers an estimated 40% embodied carbon saving compared with new build. The project is also designed to achieve WELL Silver, directly linking indoor environmental quality to user wellbeing and long-term asset performance Project Dashboard.

Crucially, St George’s Tech Co-Working illustrates how local authorities can use design-led, evidence-based retrofit to de-risk investment, meet net-zero commitments and deliver measurable social value. This methodology—data-driven, commercially literate and rooted in place—can be readily adapted to other town centres facing similar challenges.