The developer behind a new global hub for Jaguar Land Rover has picked Winvic Construction to help it deliver the huge scheme.
IM Properties is working with Winvic to deliver Mercia Park – a 238-acre warehousing and distribution site being built at Appleby Magna, just off the M42, in west Leicestershire.
It will include a 2.94 million sq ft global parts distribution centre for Jaguar Land Rover and a 450,000 sq ft logistics hub for freight forwarder DSV.
In all there will be around 3,400 people working there.
The JLR parts centre will include six buildings, ranging from 30,000 sq ft to just over one million sq ft, so that it can bring together the operations of 19 existing warehouses in ten different UK locations.
The car maker said the change will help cut lorry movements by up to 25 per cent.
Winvic is working with IM Properties’ in-house project delivery team to carry out the work, which is being funded by Intermediate Capital Group (ICG).
The aim is for the scheme to be Net Zero during construction.
Jason Jasper, UK project director for IM Properties, said: “This is not only the largest single occupier deal ever to be agreed and funded but a major planning, construction and project delivery accomplishment.
“We’ve taken a 238-acre site from zero to development-ready in four years.
“To date IM Properties has invested over £70 million in the Mercia Park development including planning, civils and Infrastructure, which demonstrates IM Properties ability to promote and invest in bringing forward much needed employment sites.”
He said the civils and Infrastructure works included remodelling 1.5 million cubic metres of material to accommodate the development plateaux and almost 2 miles of screening bunds.
Additionally, 4.6 miles of underground drainage was installed and utilities were brought in from up to 7.5 miles in either direction of the scheme to connect up with almost 9 miles of electrical infrastructure, 7.5 miles of mains drainage and 6 miles of gas infrastructure.
Mr Jasper said: “Typically a scheme of this scale would be delivered in separate phases over a five-to-10-year period.
“After years of investment and hard work, it will be exciting to see all six buildings come out of the ground at the same time.
“We have worked hard with Winvic and our supply chain to manage the logistical challenges that comes with building this volume at the same time together with managing a phased handover of the development to JLR.
“This for me exemplifies what IM Properties is about as a company and developer – agile, focussed and all the time looking to be the best we can, setting the bar for manufacturing and logistics development in the UK.
“We’re planting 85,000 individual trees and creating 30 acres of woodland, equivalent to nearly one third of the site, including many semi-mature tree varieties, with recreational paths, cycleways and wetland features incorporated into the site’s overall design
“18 projects have also already been identified and awarded £90,000 from IM Properties’ £350,000 Mercia Park Community Fund, which range from grassroot projects such as restoring ponds and pathways to buying new goalposts and equipment for a girl’s football team.”
Andrew Reynolds, project director at IM Properties added: “We are extremely pleased to be partnering with Winvic on this scheme as a trusted member of our supply chain.
“They share our ability to push the boundaries to find more sustainable, low carbon ways of working and engage with the local community to boost skills and training and deliver an extremely ambitious and complex scheme to the highest of standards.”
Danny Nelson, director and head of industrial at Winvic, said: “We have been on an incredible journey with IM Properties to date, working on numerous projects, but schemes of this nature don’t come around too often and so Mercia Park is one we are very proud to be a part of.
“To be selected by IM Properties as the delivery partner on a project of this size, scale and importance is testament to the relationship that has been cultivated over many years and that we continue to be market leaders in the sector.”
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