Construction complete on £12m Airport City logistics facility in Manchester

Work has now completed on the Airport City Manchester Joint Venture’s logistics facility, ALPHA, which is located within its flagship Global Logistics development.

Targeted at UK and international businesses aiming to benefit from the airport location, ALPHA has already generated interest from potential occupiers with announcements expected shortly.

The 130,000 sq ft development is the first on the site built by Airport City JV partner, Beijing Construction Engineering Group International (BCEGI) and offers logistics units ranging from 17,500 sq ft to 35,000 sq ft.

Yu Dongwen, acting lead director at BCEGI (UK) Ltd, said: “We are very proud to have completed the ALPHA project, particularly at such a prestigious development as Airport City Manchester.

“As a contractor and joint venture partner in Airport City we have great confidence in the development and believe it will act as a magnet for inward investment into the North West, which will bring economic benefits and employment to the region.”

Completed on time and on budget, ALPHA was forward sold during its construction for £12.2m to the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), which was advised by LaSalle Investment Management. The building has now been handed over to GMPF.

Councillor Susan Quinn, chair of GMPF Property Working Group, commented: “We’re delighted that our infrastructure partnership with Airport City has once again delivered on our stated goal of hands-on direct investment and successful collaboration.

“This investment will give us the strong levels of return we seek as well as provide badly needed opportunities for international businesses and jobs for Greater Manchester. We look forward to welcoming our first tenants and their staff.

“Many pension funds struggle to invest in infrastructure but we are leading the way and we look forward to building upon this success.

“We’re excited by the pipeline of potential investments and we look forward to working on more opportunities to achieve our twin aims of significant investment returns to pay our pensions promises, whilst delivering infrastructure and jobs for Greater Manchester.”

The construction of ALPHA follows the completion of Amazon’s 654,000 sq ft warehouse and fulfilment centre, which became operational in November 2016. ALPHA and the Amazon fulfilment centre have joined the 37,400 sq ft DHL Global Logistics facility at the expanding Airport City development.

Situated at the centre of a government Enterprise Zone, Airport City is one of the UK’s largest joint venture commercial development projects.

Once complete, the £1bn development will comprise five million sq ft of office space, hotels, advanced manufacturing, logistics facilities and ancillary retail. The joint venture partners are Manchester Airports Group (MAG), BCEGI, Carillion PLC and GMPF.

Lynda Shillaw, MAG Property CEO, said: “The completion of ALPHA is another significant landmark in the development of Airport City Manchester and the establishment of Global Logistics as a thriving location, which is attractive to multi-national, logistics-driven businesses.

“The investment that was made in ALPHA and its forward sale to GMPF, clearly demonstrates the confidence in Airport City and its role in driving the economic development of this area.”

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