Why rural workspaces are a barnstorming success

When Covid-19 hit in 2020 Kelly Collier decided she’d had enough of her office. Her legal practice, Argo Life, had been based in Maidstone town centre’s Business Terrace, a council-owned co-working space for start-ups and sole traders. There was nothing wrong with the space – it has won awards, and provides a vital service to its tenants. But for Collier, it just wasn’t right. Firstly, it was a shared space. Argo’s clientele are mainly elderly and vulnerable. As the pandemic took hold, it became evermore apparent that a shared office would never be suitable. But there was something else driving Collier. What she wanted was a rural office. And Collier wasn’t alone. As well as droves of city dwellers moving to live in the countryside in the wake of the pandemic – a 126% increase according to Rightmove – there has been a marked uptick in the number of people looking for rural workspace.  “I’m quite a country girl, really,” says Collier. “I like trees and fields and orchards and apples. You don’t get much of that in the centre of Maidstone.” After her team was forced to work from home during the first lockdown, Collier took the plunge and moved her team of six out of town.  To the east of Maidstone, straddling the waters of the River Len, is Turkey Mill. If you were to visit 300 years ago you would find a noisy, smelly, bustling hive of industry – the J Whatman paper mill, one of Britain’s biggest, responsible for the raw materials that would later become JMW Turner’s canvases and Napoleon Bonaparte’s will. The mill closed in 1976 – exactly 200 years after the Founding Fathers signed their John Hancocks on its famous “wove” sheets. Collier had been driving past the place for 20 years. She had even been to meetings there. Turkey Mill is now a business park, but one with a difference. After it ceased to be a working paper mill, the 20-acre site was bought by a used car dealer. A canny entrepreneur, he transformed many of the buildings into workspace for small businesses. But 25 years ago, Turkey Mill was sold by his sons. “They liked the cars but had no interest in the property,” says Dougie Lawson, who was working in London as a chartered surveyor at the time. Lawson had looked at the place on behalf of a client and was charmed. Despite its industrial past, Turkey Mill looked more like a stately home in parts. He decided to invest. “Final piece of the puzzle” Cut to 20-odd years later. Lawson had sold his firm, Lawson & Partners, and was looking for a three-day-a-week job to fill the hours. “It was meant to be part time,” he says ruefully. “It isn’t.” Over the time of his ownership, Turkey Mill has been transformed. Some of it is now a successful wedding venue. The grounds are well-kept and there is even a walled garden. All of the Grade II listed original space has been subdivided – or “carved up” as Lawson puts it – and new space has been developed. It now boasts more than 75 tenants, many on six-year leases, most of whom automatically renew. And it has just got planning permission for the “last piece of the jigsaw” – a 23,000 sq ft office space. The planned three-storey building, which can house between one and 12 businesses, is a response to the increasing demand Lawson has received since even before the pandemic. “It is a proper community,” says Collier, who counts herself lucky to have found a space there. A colleague pitches in: “It’s the oasis of Maidstone.”  About 20 years ago a business like Collier’s might have been a perfect fit for a bustling high street. But now she wouldn’t contemplate it. There are too many gaps, too many empty shops. And in the town centre there is no nature, and no community. Collier points to the open window in her barn conversion office. The sound of classical music is wafting up from a wedding in the orangery.  Despite the 800 or so people working there, the site retains its rural charm. ”It comes down to the environment, the trees, the running water,” says Collier. “It is very tranquil. When you come in here, it feels very calm. “If you have the right location as a business and the right environment, productivity will look after itself and staff wellbeing is much more important. If you’re having a difficult or stressful morning here you can easily reset. Compare that to a windowless office on a grey street and the view of a car park.” And that, says Lawson, is the whole point. “You have to get the feel of the place,” he says. “It’s more like running a hotel.” That’s why he prefers tenants where the people who sign the lease are working on site. “They get it, they see the appeal. It’s quite hard for a bean-counter in Solihull to see that.” Having said that, Hays Recruitment recently took an office on the site – its first ever move from the high street Supply and demand Lawson says he only knows of one or two other parks similar to Turkey Mill. Eskmills near Edinburgh springs to mind. But there appear to be plenty of people interested in not only taking the space, but also providing it. “Part of the reason for that is the growing need for farm owners to diversify,” says Savills’ planning director Andrew Watson, who is based just down the M26 in Sevenoaks. As well as converting barns to housing, many farmers are looking at workspace as a way to move away from being completely dependent on agriculture. Also in Sevenoaks is Hatchery, another outfit that sees a big future in rural offices. It was started just before the pandemic by Rich Mills and Will Bax. Both are seasoned property professionals. Mills previously worked at PwC for eight years, advising on more than £14bn of real estate deals and refinancings across Europe. Bax worked for Grosvenor, most recently as the board director responsible for its £4.5bn London estate. Despite spending most of their working lives in London, both Bax and Mills were originally from the countryside. The two had never met, but happened to take career breaks at about the same time. They also happened to have the same “vague idea” about rural offices. And they happened to have a mutual friend. XXXXXX says: “One day he said, ‘I’ll put you guys in touch. I want to see what you come up with.’” What they came up with was Hatchery. “We were trying to create the workspaces that we wish existed,” says Mills. “Somewhere in the countryside that has the mod cons of a city-based flexible workspace, with access to education, wellbeing, the right tech and so on.” They wanted to get the “health, wellbeing and creativity benefits of being in the countryside” without compromising on quality of space or facilities. “We wanted the best of both worlds,” adds Mills. After a few more conversations, the duo realised they weren’t the only ones wanting that. Not only were there rural businesses wanting space, there were also other city dwellers who wanted somewhere more rural to work. [caption id="attachment_1140716" align="aligncenter" width="847"] A CGI of the Hatchery in Sevenoaks © Hatchery[/caption] Finding the right balance In 2018 they bought a former dairy farm five miles north of Sevenoaks. “We wanted somewhere that truly felt rural but maintains that connectivity to London.” They commissioned architect Andrew McMullan to help the vision take shape and the 28,000 sq ft scheme was awarded planning in June last year. Mills describes it as a “rural campus” with offices and co-working space accounting for half, with the balance split between a strong hospitality offering, event space and maker-space studios. “It reflects the demand that you find in rural areas,” says Mills. “So it’s not all people wanting an office and it’s not all people wanting a workshop, but trying to find the right balance.” And flexibility is at the core of the scheme. “One of the problems we are trying to solve is that rural areas lag behind the city in this, so often you have just got your traditional FRI five-year lease. We want to be moving away from that, offering more flexibility.” After all, there is plenty of potential workspace in the countryside. A farm building can become an office through permitted development. The trick is providing the right space with the right amenities. At the moment the plans are waiting for the economic picture to improve. “We were probably ahead of the curve when we started the project,” laughs Mills. “But thanks to the current economic climate, this construction market, we’re still slugging away at getting the financials to work because, obviously, the world’s a bit more challenging now.” But he has faith it will happen – “later this year, maybe next” – as the financing is all arranged. And that is only the beginning. “The longer-term goal is to develop a network of sites that we own and operate.” Mills has already lined up a “few dozen sites” around the country, primarily in the South East. Demand is looking good, he says. They currently have a waiting list for people wanting space on the site with quite a few names on it. “We are positive that people want this, it’s just down to us to get it sorted.”   To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Main image: Turkey Mill