JJB Sports Portfolio

25 vacant shops across the UK unlocked for community, leisure and creative uses

The JJB portfolio consisted of 25 buildings across the UK with a concentration in the North West of England. JJB expanded in the years leading up to the financial crash in 2008 and by 2010 they were looking for a solution to mitigate the costs of stores which had been permanently closed. The portfolio was a mixture of out of town retail parks, high streets and units in often troubled shopping centres.

By making the space available to social enterprises free of charge we were able to get activity happening quickly with the variety of use reflecting the types of buildings we were able to provide. A number of building were in excess of 10,000 sq ft allowing us to work on large scale, high impact projects.

Amongst the many organisations we worked with across this portfolio were the Bristol Old Vic on their production of Coram Boy, The Circus House CIC on establishing Manchester’s first circus skills training venue and Space2Watford on a Council led arts initiative.

This project ran until JJB went into administration in September 2012.

Status: Closed September 2012