Full house for a key part of town’s industrial heritage

A Grade II listed textile mill at the Park Valley Business Park in Lockwood, Huddersfield, is now fully let.

The 20,600 sq ft Mending Rooms building has been converted into business accommodation.

It was completed last November, with 50% of office space already let. Now three more deals mean the Mending Rooms are fully occupied.

The project has been supported by a grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), with the total development costing £2.3m.

New occupiers are AHCI Ltd, The City Partnership and Ash Products.

They join Biofresh, Porky Penguin, Lumley Baxter Asset Management and Foodmate UK in the building.

Martin Duckett, of developers Park Valley Huddersfield Ltd, said the radically refurbished Mending Rooms were delivering prime SME employment space on a successful site to support inward investment and company expansion.

He said: “We are delighted this exciting opportunity has attracted seven successful and growing innovative companies to work alongside each other within contemporary space of the highest quality in a heritage setting.”

Sarah-Jayne Lishman, of Leeds-based property consultancy Dove Haigh Phillips, said: “It is tremendous news that the Mending Rooms are now fully occupied.

“This splendid development is supporting economic growth in the Huddersfield area and enhances the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises.”

Dan Vinter, of AHCI, said: “We are so lucky to have found these special offices. We were also very impressed with Adeel Adnan, who worked with us on behalf of the landlords – what a gentleman he is.

“Our company specialises in construction insurance and are based all over the UK with our head office in Warrington.

“Following a record year last year, we felt it was time to set up a Yorkshire team – and our magnificent new offices are the result.”

Andrew Lecomber-Peace, of City Partnership, said: “Park Valley has a lot of positive features, which made the decision to set up here an easy one.

“We were initially located in the neighbouring Park Valley House, but after we took on receiving agent services due to the success of the registrar side of the business, we needed to move to a bigger office to accommodate more staff.

“The Mending Rooms was the obvious choice for our new office and our clients have been more than impressed with the building and its facilities.”

Simon Alder, Ash Projects, said: “We had outgrown our existing offices in nearby Farnley Tyas and were looking for a large space where the team could easily work collaboratively. As soon as we visited the Mending Rooms we were wowed and there wasn’t any other option for us.

“The fantastic quality of the converted building, the amazing space with great scenery, lots of on-site parking and out-of-hours security were a great draw, and the cherry on top was the availability of an additional unit to relocate our workshop too – allowing all our UK operations to be located at a single site.”

Duckett added: “We are tremendously proud of what has already been achieved at Park Valley Business Park and Park Valley House, where more than 150 sustainable jobs have been created already. Now completed, the Mending Rooms is home to another 80 employees.

“We have been able to transform a derelict industrial site into a modern business park, with first-class industrial units and wonderful heritage building in Park Valley House. Now the Mending Rooms is the next jewel in our crown.”

The main contractors for the Mending Rooms were JM Building Yorkshire Ltd. The development has the full support of Kirklees Council.