New-look centre ready for business
Reporter: Martyn Torr
Date published: 26 April 2010
Following more than two years in the planning and £2 million worth of refurbishment, the E3 Business and Enterprise Hub has opened for business on the top floor of the Earl Business Centre in Dowry Street, Hathershaw.
The Hathershaw and Fitton Hill New Deal for Communities programme, working in conjunction with Middleton-based Goyt Properties, the owners of Earl Business Centre, has financed the development of new, managed office space facilities.
This partnership of grant funding and private sector investment has converted 33,000sq ft of the former mill premises into high quality office space.
About a mile south of Oldham town centre, just off Ashton Road in the heart of the NDC area, Earl Mill was originally built as a textile mill in 1860 with extensions added in 1893 and again in 1920.
The mill ceased cotton production in 1922 and was subsequently used as an Army barracks during the Second World War — and afterwards, as a “demob” centre.
In more recent years the four-storey property was home to the returns centre of the Littlewoods mail order business but has accommodated a variety of other uses.
The refurbishment work, carried out by Oldham contractors J Greenwood Builders Ltd, comprised selective demolition of some of the site — including removal of the lodge — creation of car parking and hard and soft landscaping, a new entrance/reception area, installation of passenger lifts, replacement windows, brickwork cleaning and pointing, roof repairs and the conversion of the top floor into E3.
This managed office/ work space and training/conference facilities is effectively two distinct areas. Half of the floor is designated as a business incubation unit, to be called the Hive.
Designed to attract start-ups and those new but more established businesses which are starting to grow, The Hive comprises high quality offices, ranging from 118sq ft to 1,760sq ft suitable for one to 25 occupants.
This accommodation incorporates new facilities and is reached via passenger lifts and stairwells in the Business Centre and surrounding atriums and annexes.
The Hive has been refurbished to include:
Flexible furnished or unfurnished office space with suspended ceilings and high-quality finishes.
A staffed reception area.
Passenger and service lifts.
Secure designated parking with CCTV and entry barrier system.
Centralised services for telephony and IT.
High-speed broadband Internet access — at 10Mb the fastest in Oldham.
Hot desk, conference, meeting and training facilities.
The Hive offers business support packages, as well as the services of partner groups, such as Business Link and Oldham Council.
Robin Prescott, NDC’s Partnership and Projects manager, said: “This impressive development in the heart of the NDC area indicates our commitment to supporting business incubation and growth.
“We aim to improve the economy of Hathershaw and Fitton Hill by encouraging and supporting local people to start their own business, to fulfil the dreams they have had of being their own boss. We also want to attract other new and existing businesses to establish themselves in E3 and the Hive and make it a hub for entrepreneurs in Oldham.”
He believes that the Hive can replicate and improve on the success of the NDC’s previous business incubation project, the Enterprise Factory.
This initiative was responsible for starting and nurturing more than 80 new business between 2006 and 2009, bucking the trend elsewhere in the borough.
This much larger area for incubation and graduation space is expected to attract new businesses into the NDC area and will help meet the growing demand for high quality managed office space of which there is a recognised shortage in Oldham, adds Mr Prescott.
The first four tenants, all of whom have developed with the help of the Enterprise Factory, have now moved in to their new offices and two more companies have signed up to move.
There is also additional accommodation comprising a large rectangular office suite of around 16,000sq ft with flexibility for open plan use or sub division.
NDC chief executive Gordon Roscoe concluded: “The NDC has long been committed to enabling the provision of training, business support and job opportunities for local people.
“The high quality workspace, training and conference facilities available at E3, with the complimentary facilities at the Honeywell Centre and the refurbished shops on Ashton Road, provides a fantastic resource to help sustain and grow business activities in Hathershaw and Fitton Hill.”
Gordon Haynes, managing director of Goyt Properties Ltd, expressed his delight that the Earl Business Centre was able to provide a home for the E3 Enterprise Centre and the business incubator units.
He added: “This clearly complements Goyt’s own hopes to see the whole building developing into a thriving and vital centre not only for businesses but also for community-based organisations and groups from Hathershaw and Fitton Hill and the borough as a whole.”
