Amazon has signed to take the largest remaining speculatively built shed in the UK.
The online retail giant is understood to have struck a deal on Tuesday with Gazeley and Metlife for its 700,000 sq ft Flair building at G-Park in Rugeley, Staffordshire.
Although the terms of the deal are undisclosed, Amazon is believed to have signed a 15-year lease at a rent of around £4 per sq ft.
Flair has been available since the end of 2008 and has previously been linked with occupiers including German logistics firm Kuehne + Nagel.
Amazon’s deal at Rugeley and wine retailer Constellation’s soon-to-be-agreed letting of ProLogis’ 550,000 sq ft Crossflow 550 in Bristol, means there is now just one shed left in the UK of more than 500,000 sq ft – Legal & General’s 528,000 sq ft Crackerjack in Corby. The shed was also shortlisted by Amazon for its requirement.
The Seattle-based retailer has signed a number of short-term leases over the past year in central England, including the 415,000 sq ft First Point in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and a 545,000 sq ft facility at Kingston Park in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
However, it has been seeking a more permanent base and is likely to decant from its short-term space into the Flair building.
Amazon is growing at around 20% per annum and continues to need more warehouse space as a result.
A source said: “Amazon’s search does not stop with the Flair building. From what we understand it may be taking more than one unit.”
Amazon last year agreed to take a 1m sq ft mega-shed in Dunfermline, Fife. It moves into the building, which is being developed by Graftongate and financed by HSBC, next month.
Burbage Realty and CB Richard Ellis are letting agents on G-Park. Amazon was unrepresented.
