Amazon, the online retail giant, is to develop a massive 2.2m sq ft distribution centre at Avonmouth – potentially creating hundreds of jobs in what will be the largest building in the South West.
Details of the huge scheme – which will be built next to retail The Range’s recently opened 1.2m sq ft warehouse – are still under wraps.
But according to a report on the Property Week website, Amazon has agreed to buy 33.5 acres at the Central Park logistics scheme at Avonmouth, pictured below, and is already developing a four-storey ‘mega-shed’ on the site.
The scheme would be a massive boost for Bristol’s reputation as a prime location for the distribution industry. Lidl, DHL and Davies Turner are already operating from warehouses at Central Park where developer Mountpark is also speculatively building three units totalling 400,000 sq ft.
According to Property Week, Amazon is understood to have paid around £13.4m for the land – around £400,000 per acre – and it expects the warehouse to come on stream in around a year’s time.
The move would be a departure for Amazon, which has until leased its rapidly expanding network of UK warehouses rather than buy land and develop its own.
It will be Amazon’s 16th UK distribution centre – it is to open three later this year at Doncaster, Warrington and Tilbury as its fast-paced growth continues and the online shopping revolution shows no sign of running out of steam.
At present, most Amazon deliveries to customers across the South West are supplied from its warehouse in Swansea Bay.
The Range has created around 600 jobs at its new distribution centre on the 600-acre Central Park site.
Central Park, the South West’s largest scheme of its kind, is 4.5miles from the M48, which links it to the motorway network and brings 85% of the UK within a 4.5-hour drive.
It is also six miles from Avonmouth Docks and has a direct rail link. Plans are in place to put in a new junction on the nearby M49 which would give it direct motorway access.
