Winvic Construction Ltd, a leading main contractor
that specialises in the design and delivery of multi-sector construction
and civil engineering projects, has been awarded a contract by repeat
client IM Properties to construct a 2.94 million sq ft global parts
logistics centre at Mercia Park in Leicestershire. The five industrial
units will be leased to Jaguar Land Rover, making this the UK’s
largest single occupier logistics park.
IM Properties recently announced [1] that Intermediate Capital Group
(IGC) would be forward funding the new campus – at the heart of the
UK’s Golden Triangle – which will service 80 countries. Aiming for
the scheme to be Net Zero in construction, Mercia Park provides a
further step forward for IM Properties’ sustainability ambitions for
future developments, complimenting an extensive social value programme
and a skills and training initiative already underway at the scheme.
Winvic’s investment in people, technologies and forward-thinking
approaches to construction puts the main contractor in the ideal
position to support IM Properties’ green commitments.
Units 2 and 4 are the largest, at 1,000,000 sq ft, with 514m x 181m x
18m steel frames. Units 3 and 5 are each 300,000 sq ft and Unit 1 is
200,000 sq ft and all five buildings will comprise office space,
totalling 107,000 sq ft. To date, unusual project challenges 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 Monday, 15 February and the project
will be handed over in September 2022. However, Winvic has been on site
at the north-west Leicestershire logistics park site – close to
Junction 11 of the M42 – since September 2020 for IM Properties,
delivering a £21 million civils and infrastructure contract [2],
including S278 works. The bulk earthwork excavations and bund creation
works are now complete, planting of thousands of trees and shrubs has
begun and the programme of highways works is progressing at pace.
Winvic will undertake preparatory earthworks, before starting
construction of the first three units to the south of the estate road,
before commencing Units 4 and 5 to the north. In addition to the
industrial facilities, Winvic will also be delivering associated works
including the construction of five yards and car parks accommodating
over 2,300 vehicles. Surface and foul water drainage installation, and
external services will also be undertaken, including intricate
underground connections between the completed infrastructure works and
each individual unit. Additionally, the area to the north of Unit 3
presents a concentrated number of services that require complex clash
detection and planning activities.
Danny Nelson, Director and Head of Industrial at Winvic, commented:
“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 3 million sq ft – for IMP
and end user, UK automotive pioneer, Jaguar Land Rover.”
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. Typically a scheme of this scale would be delivered in separate
phases over a five-to-ten-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.”
Winvic is working closely with IM Properties and its supply chain to
explore job and training opportunities. The Mercia Park Employment
Scheme and local Employment and Skills Partnership represents a pledge
to ensure local job seekers, students and businesses can benefit from
the construction of the 238-acre industrial park. Six local authority
areas, which surround the Leicestershire site, are being targeted during
construction and people looking for an opportunity who live locally to
Mercia Park can get in touch with IM Properties or Winvic.
Winvic was also engaged in November by DSV [3] 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.
For more information on Winvic, the company’s latest project news and
job vacancies please visit www.winvic.co.uk [4]. Join Winvic on social
media – visit Twitter @WinvicLtd [5] – and LinkedIn [6].
