Member Article

It's a double! Two new deals signed at ex-Emmerdale Mill

Two expanding companies have signed new deals at the thriving Sunny Bank Mills, the iconic Yorkshire mill complex between Leeds and Bradford.

The deals underline the renaissance of Sunny Banks Mills in Farsley, where YTV’s Emmerdale and Heartbeat were filmed.

During the past seven years the multi award-winning Sunny Bank Mills, one of the most famous family-owned mills in Yorkshire, has been transformed into a modern office complex for the 21st century. It is now home to more than 70 companies, who employ a total of 355 staff.

It is also a best-practice case study in a report “Engines of Prosperity”, on the conversion and regeneration of West Yorkshire’s textile mills prepared by Cushman and Wakefield on behalf of Historic England.

One of the new tenants, who has signed a new three-year lease, is PAV IT Services. PAV (www.pav.co.uk) provides IT, Cloud and Data services to businesses across the UK and has a large number of well-known corporate clients.

Managing director Jason Fry explained that PAV IT’s head office was near Brighton and the move to 11 The Mending Rooms at Sunny Bank Mills was designed to support the company’s growth in the north.

“This is an exciting move and we are delighted to be expanding into such hi-spec, high-quality offices at Sunny Bank Mills. We are proud to welcome our clients to the Mending Rooms.

“The community at Sunny Bank Mills is fantastic, as is the location. It’s a bonus to have on-site parking, too, and the landlords, John and William Gaunt, couldn’t have been more helpful,” said Mr Fry. “All in all, this is an excellent move for us.”

Meanwhile flourishing video production company Fresh Cut have relocated from The Mending Rooms to the larger space that includes a video studio and production offices at The Spinning Mill at Sunny Bank Mills.

Creative Director Rick Frier explained: “It’s great to combine our Leeds Production office with our studio space here at Sunny Bank Mills. Having all of our Leeds team together in such an inspirational space means that we can be much more responsive to productions often working to extremely fast-turnarounds”

“We take a very hands on approach, producing engaging content for brands throughout the UK. Now we have a large flexible space to suit our needs, one week it’s maybe a TV kitchen, the next week we’ve built a set and it’s a living room for a commercial. Now we have our edit suites, production team and studio all under one roof.”

“Sunny Bank is a fantastic place, it offers us a large cost effective space which would just not be achievable in the city centre. The landlords are very supportive and reactive to our needs. The community feel and fantastic shops and restaurants in Farsley make it the ideal hub for ambitious independent businesses,” he added.

William Gaunt, joint managing director of Edwin Woodhouse, the owners of Sunny Bank Mills, commented: “These two deals underline the versatility and flexibility of space at Sunny Bank Mills, which is attracting an exciting breadth of occupiers. They also illustrate the strength of the Yorkshire economy, with both companies having the confidence to commit their future to us at Sunny Bank Mills.”

John Gaunt, joint managing director of Edwin Woodhouse, added: “These are exciting times at Sunny Bank Mills. We will shortly embark on the demolition of redundant buildings on site, opening up our historic mil complex and paving the way for future development.”

Sarah-Jayne Lishman of Leeds-based property consultancy Dove Haigh Phillips commented: “The refurbishment of Sunny Bank Mills is a complete triumph, a wonderful balance of cutting edge modern employment space in an environment rich in history and heritage. The attention to detail is stunning and the mills now provide arguably the finest space in the Leeds-Bradford corridor.”

The joint marketing agents for Sunny Bank Mills are the Leeds office of global property consultancy JLL.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robert Beaumont .