Crawley Borough Council has missed out on more than £1 million of income due to its new town hall building standing more than half empty.
It has been more than two years since The Create Building, in The Boulevard, was officially opened and 55 per cent of the office space has not been let.
Figures received following a Freedom of Information request stated there were potential earnings of £2,307,273 per year, if all 77,000sqft of space for commercial tenants was let.
Between March, 2023, and March 31, 2025, 35,000sqft was let, bringing in £1,260,912 – a difference of £1,046,361.
A council spokesman said: “We continue to explore opportunities with prospective tenants to fill the remaining commercial space in The Create Building. It is important that we get the right tenants to ensure long-term stability of income.”
Construction on the nine-storey building started in the spring of 2020 – just as the pandemic hit – and finished in late 2022. It officially opened in March, 2023.
Since then, Varian Medical Systems Ltd, British Airways Holidays and Chubb Ltd have leased office space.
Empty office space carries its own costs and for the 42,000sqft that stands unused in The Create Building, that cost is rather high. The cost of running the entire building is between £890,047 and £949,384, based on £7.50 to £8 per sqft. And the empty offices, as well as bringing in no money, cost between £315,000 and £336,000 to run.
