IM Properties has given Winvic Construction the follow-on job of build five huge steel-frame warehouses, totalling 2.94 million sq ft, at its Mercia Park in Leicestershire. Winvic has does enabling works.
The five industrial units will be leased to Jaguar Land Rover, making this the UK’s largest single occupier logistics park.
It is also Winvic’s largest industrial facility to date.
Two of the sheds are a million square feet – 514 metres long, 181 metres wide and 18 metres high. Two are 300,000 sq ft and one is 200,000 sq ft.
Unusual project challenges so far have included designing the link building slabs to withstand adjacent warehouse racking leg loads and ensuring the structural frame can tolerate enhanced loading in block stacking areas.
The Winvic team started works on this contract Monday 15th February and the project is expected to be handed over in September 2022.
However, Winvic has been on site at the northwest Leicestershire logistics park site – close to Junction 11 of the M42 – since last year, delivering a £21m civils and infrastructure contract for IM Properties. [See Winvic makes fast start on Mercia Park, 7Sep20]
In addition to the industrial facilities, Winvic will also be delivering associated works including the construction of five yards and car parks accommodating more than 2,300 vehicles. Surface and foul water drainage installation, and external services will also be put in, including underground connections between the completed infrastructure works and each individual unit.
Winvic was also engaged in November by DSV Group to design, construct and partially fit out its new facility at Mercia Park, which comprises a warehouse, cross-dock terminal and three-storey office building.
Winvic director Danny Nelson, head of industrial, 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. Our investment in people, technologies and forward-thinking approaches to construction puts Winvic in the ideal position to support the green commitments made by IM Properties and we’re looking forward to constructing our largest industrial facility to date – at almost three million sq ft – for IMP and end user, UK automotive pioneer, Jaguar Land Rover.”
IM Properties project director Jason Jasper 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. 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.”
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