New tenant for The Culture Trust is good news for Luton and the creative Hat District

IMI Hydronic will move into a new warehouse-style workspace in Luton's Hat House this month.

The refurbished hat factory in the town centre opened in November and is part of The Hat District four-site heritage regeneration project led by local charity The Culture Trust to meet a growing demand for creative workspace in this existing creative community.

IMI Hydronic will move their design solutions department into the flagship top floor of Hat House, joining Clearhead Media and Majesa, the Panama Hat Company, who occupy other floors.

A team of 22 people will use the offices at Hat House including 10 Technical Engineers.

IMI provide world class hydronic system designs and products enabling customers to achieve optimum performance and energy savings.

Neil Bunning, Managing Director (UK & Ireland) of IMI Hydronic, said: “The Hat House location was ideal, located in the Cultural Hat District with a focus on creative industries.

"The ability to attract the best talent from an engineering and digital background is fundamental to the future-proofing of our business.”

The recently restored Hat House, on Guildford Street, is an imposing Edwardian 5 storey building built in a neo-Jacobean style in the conservation area of Luton.

Despite COVID-19 there is great interest in this unique and stimulating space. Hat House is part of the Hat District’s cultural district of bars, live music, venues and events at the neighbouring refurbished Hat Factory.

Marie Kirbyshaw, chief executive of The Culture Trust, said: “We are delighted to welcome IMI Hydronic into the Hat District Creative Community.

"They are a well-established, multi-faceted organisation and shall be setting up their Design Solutions Team on the top floor of Hat House – lucky them and lucky us!”

Only two floors remain available and the Trust welcome enquiries from the creative and digital industries.

The Hat District creative regeneration project has been made possible with £3.9m seed funding from the Local Growth Fund through the South East Midland Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP).

Hilary Chipping, Chief Executive from SEMLEP, said: “This creative re-use of redundant hat factories is an incredibly important project in the heart of Luton and provides vitally needed new workspaces and places to grow small businesses and enable more jobs”

For enquiries about workspace in the Hat District, contact [email protected].