Case Study: Dean Hey and Top Land Country Business Parks

Dean Hey and Top Land Country Business Parks are two recently developed sites located in the heart of the stunning Calder Valley.

Both sites are former poultry farms and have been renovated since 2000 and converted into extensive and impressive business facilities, plus a fitness centre, nursery, out of school space and industrial units.

The sites are also one of only 22 locations within the UK that are currently part of the BT Fibre To The Curb (FTTC) rollout.

This will extend 40MBps fibre optic broadband directly into the site, enabling any business located there to have access to a premium broadband service at a very reasonable charge.

Ralph Thornber, director of Thornber Properties who manage the sites, says Dean Hey and Top Land are perfect examples of a rural business centre:

“Both sites are operating at nearly-full capacity with several different companies from a range of sectors basing their businesses at Dean Hey or Top Land.

“We have businesses from a variety of backgrounds including photography, technology, architects and fancy dress online sales.
“Our units range in size and the facilities can be adapted dependant on our tenants’ requirements.”

ICT is vitally important to virtually every business, and that is no different at these two Thornber properties, as Ralph continued:

“We like to ensure that every business that moves in here, as well as our current tenants, has the best possible ICT support and facilities available to them. The renovations that took place on the two sites were sufficiently in-depth that all under-floor cabling and power points were fitted as standard. This means that each business that moves in can get started right away.

“If the business needs any further ICT support or alterations we can help fit the office out to their specification.

“We are delighted to be one of only a handful of sites to have the new superfast broadband internet connections available. This is a massive plus for us and our tenants. We are able to provide our tenants with internet speeds that many offices in cities outside of London won’t be able to.”

Despite their rural location, Dean Hey and Top Land have a high standard of ICT infrastructure in place. The business units are fully equipped with electrical sockets, data networking cabling and Category 2 lighting to provide comfortable modern office spaces.

Thornber Properties have fitted out Dean Hey and Top Land to ensure that when a new tenant moves in the transition process is as easy as possible, with IT help on hand if needed.

The two properties achieved ‘excellent’ level of the ict active accreditation – the highest level possible for part-fitted premises. This shows that these two sites have an ICT level that can match or surpass more urban office spaces.

Ralph added, “We were always confident that our ICT facilities were of a very high standard and so were keen to have this recognised by independent assessors such as ict active.

“Achieving the ict active accreditation justifies our opinion that our ICT infrastructure is one of the best for this type of business space in the region and one that our tenants can rely upon. Although we are a rural office space, we can match, or better, many city centre offices as far as ICT infrastructure is concerned.

“The ict active mark is a sign that we are offering the best possible ICT to our tenants and space users and we are thrilled to be registered as excellent under the scheme.”