Digital business incubator hub in the centre of Harrogate

Work to create a digital business incubator hub in the centre of Harrogate will begin on Monday. (17th May)

Lindum is to carry out a £500,000 refurb of two office floors for Harrogate City Council and Harrogate Convention Centre at Springfield House, which sits within the convention centre off The Kings Road.

The finished building will provide flexible working spaces to suit individual or small businesses in the tech, digital and media industries.

As well as office space, it will provide event and meeting space, a business support hub, workshops as well as one-to-one advice on a number of subjects including business plans and financial support.

The council unveiled plans to refurbish the site in February 2019 and work had been due to start last year. However, the convention centre’s transformation into an NHS Nightingale Hospital meant the project had to be put on hold.

Now the council is now progressing with the project and has appointed Lindum, based in Elvington near York, to carry out the renovations. The contract was procured through the Pagabo Refit and Refurb construction framework.

The work is expected to take around 20 weeks and will include a full refurbishment and reconfiguration of the existing space, providing modern, technically enabled space for new business.

Harrogate Borough Council vacated Springfield House when it moved all of its operations to its new civic centre at Knapping Mount in 2017. The office has since been let out to businesses.

Lindum MD Jonathan Sizer said the renovations would provide valuable, town centre office space.

Jonathan Sizer, said:

We are delighted to be working with Harrogate Borough Council to deliver this long-awaited project, which will bring empty office space on the third and fourth floors of Springfield House back into use.

The Harrogate Digital Incubator will not only provide a modern work space, in the heart of the town centre, but a space where businesses can work individually or together to share knowledge, receive advice and fundamentally grow their business.

High quality, flexible and affordable office space is in desperately short supply and high demand. We are delighted to be working with Harrogate Borough Council to deliver this project and playing our role in helping the economy to bounce back from the effects of COVID 19.

The ‘digital incubator hub’ is being funded through £540,000 through the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and is expected to make the council around £49,000 a year in rent.

The contract was procured via Pagabo’s Refit and Refurb framework.

Karen Carter, Regional Relationship Manager for the North at Pagabo, said:

We were delighted to again support Harrogate Borough Council with the quick and compliant appointmentof Lindum to deliver the Springfield House project; a facility which aligns to our values of being digital first and supporting new and smaller businesses to flourish.

“The award through our specialist refit and refurbishment framework showcases the expertise available within our ecosystem to efficiently progress projects for all of our public sector clients.