British Land to build own logistics centres, Meadowhall mall set to benefit

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Nov 24, 2021

One way around the problems of product supply issues is to build your own logistics centres. That’s exactly what British Land is doing, planning to turn empty spaces across the UK into urban distribution sites.

And its co-owned Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield is set to benefit from the plan. The commercial property giant is seeking planning permission to add a ‘logistics element’ to a 571,000 sq ft site adjacent to the mall.

The land has been earmarked for a multimillion pound ‘last-mile’ logistics operation to open before the end of next March.

The move is part of British Land’s wider focus on “retail and fulfilment” that sees the company building delivery hubs with others planned for Teeside, Enfield that’s close to the M25 motorway, and converting an underground car park in Finsbury Square, central London.

In London, it aims to buy more warehouses and add extra floors to existing ones to rent out to retailers wanting to deliver goods quickly to shoppers in the capital.

According to the Guardian newspaper, British Land has put the total value of its pipeline of urban logistics properties at £600 million, and said it had spent £189 million on assets with “urban logistics potential”.

This particularly includes central London where distribution centres are in short supply, according to British Land’s chief executive, Simon Carter.

He told the newspaper: “Taking existing logistics assets and going up, making them multi-storey, has been seen a lot in other supply-constrained markets particularly across Asia, and you are seeing more in Paris, but it hasn’t been done to a huge extent in the UK,” 

He added: “Increasing expectation of delivery times, same-day delivery and in some cases 10-minute delivery is creating colossal demand for space at the same time that industrial space has shrunk in London.”