Can AI Help Bring Our Empty Buildings Back to Life?

With Dr Katherine Gunderson, Founder and CEO, Grand Bequest

Every Scottish town has them. Granite façades, sandstone tenements, decades of character, all sitting empty. A traditional feasibility study to bring one back costs tens of thousands and takes months. There are thousands of these buildings. The maths does not work.

That is the gap AI is starting to close, and the part most people miss is that the data already exists. Planning records, ownership registries, EPC ratings, the Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Register, Historic Environment Scotland listings, OS building footprints, SIMD. The UK has world-class open data on its built environment. What has been missing is the layer that turns all of it into investment decisions.

That is what Grand Bequest is building. Scotland's first PropTech B Corp, an "Operating System for Regeneration" that screens derelict buildings the way investors screen a portfolio, pulling planning history, ownership, structural condition, energy performance, footfall, and comparable conversions into a single model, and surfacing the buildings that are genuinely investable today.

The thesis is sharp. Empty buildings are not a planning problem. They are an information problem at scale. The data is there. AI is what finally lets it catch up with the ambition.

About the speaker

Dr Katherine Gunderson is the Founder and CEO of Grand Bequest, Scotland's first PropTech B Corp. Her work sits at the intersection of regeneration, data and AI, and the future of vacant and underused buildings.

Format

Talk by Dr Katherine Gunderson (around 25 minutes) on the data, the model, and the case studies that shape how Grand Bequest is approaching vacant buildings across Scotland

Fireside chat with a Startup Grind Aberdeen host (around 20 minutes) going deeper on the operational and commercial questions

Audience Q&A (around 20 to 25 minutes)

Networking with refreshments

Who should attend

Founders and operators building in PropTech, data, or AI. Investors active in Scotland's built environment. Architects, planners, surveyors, and regeneration practitioners. Council and economic development representatives. Researchers in geography, urban studies, and applied data science. Anyone who has walked past an empty Scottish building and wondered why nobody fixes it.

Event details

📍 Venue: ONE Tech Hub, Aberdeen

🗓️ Date: Thursday 23 July 2026

🕑 Time: 14:00 to 16:30

🎟️ Cost: Register now

About Startup Grind Aberdeen

Startup Grind Aberdeen is the local chapter of the global Startup Grind network, powered by Google for Startups. We host founder talks, fireside chats, and ecosystem events for the North East of Scotland's startup community.

Supported by

CMS · ONE Tech Hub · Barclays Eagle Labs · Tech Scaler · Campfire