Panattoni, a pan-European industrial real estate developer, today announced it was working up plans to develop its biggest-ever speculative logistics building in the UK, in US.

The 630,000 sq ft facility will be built along with a smaller 85,000 sq ft facility by junction 1 of the M18 at Rotherham on a 40-acre site, which Panattoni has recently acquired from Stretton Denman.

Panattoni is aiming to submit a reserved matters planning application in the next few weeks, with a view to beginning construction in the first quarter of 2022.

The 715,000 sq ft development, called Interchange Park, is part of Panattoni’s commitment to a significant speculative development programme in the UK in 2021 in response to strong demand from occupiers for immediately available space. The acquisition of Interchange Park increases the size of Panattoni’s current speculative development programme to around 4.2 million sq ft across eight locations across the North and Midlands, the largest of which are at South Normanton, Derby, Northampton and Crewe.

Interchange Park is located in an established distribution location, immediately adjacent to junction 1 of the M18 and just two miles from junction 32 of the M1. Local occupiers include Great Bear, Clipper Logistics, DX and FedEx.

Dan Burn, Development Director for the North West and US at Panattoni, said: “Our continued appetite for speculative development reflects the strength of demand from occupiers for immediately available space. In the first quarter of this year half of all take-up in the logistics sector was of speculative developments, driven by demand from e-commerce companies. “And in the last 12 months alone, we have let more than 6 million sq ft of space.

“Having let our speculative Wakefield 515 development in May, we are delighted to have acquired this strategic site and look forward to bringing this nationally significant scheme forward over the coming months”.