Investment secured for car maker’s warehouse
DISTRIBUTION CENTRE BEING CONSTRUCTED NEAR THE M42
FINANCIAL backing has been secured for a 3 million sq ft Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) global parts distribution centre.
Investment firm Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) will provide funding for the Mercia Park complex, being built by IM Properties next to Junction 11 of the M42, at Appleby Magna.
Planning permission to build on 238 acres of farmland was granted in the autumn of 2019 despite concerns from people living nearby about the environmental, traffic and visual impact.
ICG said it will partner IM Properties to deliver what it called the UK’s biggest-ever “single occupier build-to-suit transaction”.
It is providing 20-year leases for each of five units. The site will be JLR’s base for sending spare parts to customers in the UK and 80 countries.
The car maker wants to centralise the work currently done at 10 warehouses dotted around the Midlands, including a big warehouse in Desford. The whole site will have 1,200 people working there from day one and 3,000 forecast by 2030.
Kevin Ashfield, UK development director at IM Properties, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with ICG and remain committed to delivering this sustainable, high-quality, bespoke global logistics centre.
“Infrastructure work is now largely complete, so construction can commence.
“This is great news for the logistics sector and it is hugely exciting for IM Properties to be involved with a deal of such scale and importance. The units will be completed on a phased basis with the last unit due to complete in September 2022”.
Chris Nichols, head of sale and leaseback at ICG, said: “This is a landmark acquisition by ICG, and the biggest single-occupier logistics build-to-suit ever undertaken in the UK.
“Successfully completing this transaction reflects our ability to source truly mission-critical real estate in very competitive spheres.
“We anticipate making additional investments by the end of the first quarter of the year, by which time we expect to have invested circa 1 billion euros (£890 million) into mission-critical investments in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Northern Europe.
“The fund is actively seeking new mission-critical real estate investment opportunities across Europe.”