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London Gateway appoints property agent

[ April 26, 2012   //   ]

DP World’s London Gateway has appointed Jones Lang LaSalle as sole property agents for its logistics park development, which it says is the largest in Europe. The property firm will provide specialist advice to support the delivery of the park connected to the new 3.5m teu deep-sea container port, located just east of London on the north bank of the Thames.

Jones Lang LaSalle director Tim Johnson said: “London Gateway has the potential to transform logistics operations in the UK by offering a port-centric logistics solution at the heart of the UK’s largest consumer market. The logistics park is a unique proposition offering the potential to provide some of the largest and tallest buildings in Europe. There are 15 million consumers located within 80km of the site and this underpins our view that London Gateway is simply the best location for UK supply chain solutions.”

The project has planning consent for a 9.25million square feet, rail connected logistics park, adjacent to the new deep-water port, which is on schedule to open in Q4 2013.

The vast majority of deep-sea imports enter the UK through South East ports yet only 10% of warehousing is in the South East and London Gateway offers reduced transport costs by having warehousing at the port of entry, closer to key UK consumer markets.

Tim Johnson said that units would be available from 100,000sq ft up to 1.25m sq ft and one building already had consent to go up to 41 metres high – though more conventional 12-15m heights would also be available. Priority would be given to users of the new port, he added.

He was unable to reveal likely rent levels, but he envisaged that users would be “those people attracted to the park by reason of its being next to the port” and its unique capabilities, including deepsea berths, rail terminal and its location in the South-East.

No firms have yet formally signed deals, but buildings should be available for occupation at about the same time as the port’s opening, around the fourth quarter of 2013.

Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering has meanwhile won a multi-million pound contract to build a new rail terminal capable of handling the longest trains in the UK for London Gateway. The engineering firm will develop the first of three rail terminals and double track the branch line to the new deep-sea container port. The terminal will be able to take trains up to 34 wagons long.

 

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