The transformation of a refurbished mill complex in Farsley continues to gather pace with the addition of five new tenants announced today.
Seven Districts Coffee, The Hip Store, Brainstorm, Applied Creative and White Rose Training have all moved into new offices at the refurbished Sunny Bank Mills, where YTV’s Emmerdale and Heartbeat were filmed.
During the past 10 years the family-owned mill has been transformed into a modern office, retail and leisure complex for the 21st century. It is now home to more than 75 companies, who employ a total of 400 staff.
These five deals come hard on the heels of a raft of significant office, retail and leisure lettings at Sunny Bank Mills during the past few weeks.
John Gaunt John Gaunt, joint managing director of Edwin Woodhouse, the owners of Sunny Bank Mills, said:
“These five deals are excellent examples of quality businesses being attracted to a quality business environment. The versatility and flexibility of space here is attracting an exciting breadth of occupiers.
“We are especially pleased to welcome our new occupiers to Sunny Bank Mills as we emerge from a very challenging year. There is now a degree of optimism within the Yorkshire business community and these new deals reflect this.”
Isaac Stott, of Seven Districts Coffee, explained that the speciality coffee roaster company had chosen Sunny Bank Mills because “it is a really creative, exciting place, with a great community.” He added:
“Our business has been steadily been growing over the last year, even during lockdown, and we now need a hub for our core team to meet, plan and continue to build momentum.
“Alongside this, we’ve bumped into William and John Gaunt, the managing directors, as they go about the mills, fixing, mending and planning how to renovate, grow and develop this site. Their commitment speaks lots about how there really is a genuine community here, and how the Gaunts are invested in making the mills something to be proud of.”
James Trivunovic, of independent boutique Hip Store, who are relocating from opposite Kirkgate Market in Leeds city centre, added:
“We were looking for a space outside of Leeds city centre where we could have a more relaxed and considered approach to working post-Covid. Our business is built on a 35-year history within clothing retail in Leeds, so where better to have a HQ than in an amazing reconditioned textile mill?
“I have seen Farsley and the surrounding area transform itself over the last four to five years into an amazing community space and creative hub. Here we have the ideal mix of creating content within the space we work in, coupled with our global audience seeing the real authenticity of the Hip brand first hand. Our business is completely based on community and curation.
“We are consolidating all of our teams from across three locations in Leeds, Bury and South Manchester into one beautiful space where we can work as one unit.
“We were established in 1987 as one tiny store in the Thornton’s Arcade in Leeds selling niche and top-tier clothing brands.
“We now have two large physical stores in Leeds and Nottingham, with one more coming by the end of 2021. By the end of this year we will have grown into footwear, lifestyle, homewares and women’s products. Our ambition is to be the best modern lifestyle store in the UK, curated for our customers.”
Sarah-Jayne Lishman of Leeds-based property consultancy Dove Haigh Phillips, who are marketing Sunny Banks Mills, added:
“The owners of Sunny Bank Mills took the brave decision to invest heavily in their mill and this decision has paid dividends.
“This is one of the most significant mill regeneration projects in Yorkshire. Steeped in history and with massive potential, Sunny Bank Mills is now one of the prime business locations in the West Leeds area.”