British Land has appointed McLaren Construction to build a four-storye last mile logistics hub for Southwark and central London.

It will be the first of British Land’s pipeline of urban logistics projects in Greater London with a development value of £1.3bn.

The 140,000 sq ft building on a 0.78 hectare site on Mandela Way will stack logistics space over multiple floors allowing the building to be subdivided, multi-tenanted and adaptable to future trends and climates.

The ground floor provides access for a variety of distribution vehicles, including HGVs and cargo bikes, while the building is served by five goods lifts, a further three lifts for cycles and cargo bikes and six passenger lifts.

McLaren’s contract includes plant, landscaping, access, vehicle and cycle parking. Building services works are limited to give maximum flexibility to future tenants, meaning around 90% of the build is shell and core only with the remainder built to a CAT A office fit out.

The BREEAM Excellent design includes low carbon materials and 1,470 square metres of rooftop photovoltaics above a mix of green and blue roofs, the latter collecting for a grey water system. The total biodiversity net gain for the former car pound site is 167%, which includes creation of an ecological corridor alongside a residential boundary.

David Gavin, managing director for industrial and logistics at McLaren, said: “We are seeing a new generation of clever industrial buildings that stack light industrial, warehouse and distribution space to keep a broader range of jobs in urban areas and serve demand for last-mile distribution space.

“If there’s one thing they have in common, it’s that they maximise their use of tight urban sites, requiring ingenuity and careful planning for the plant and materials we need for construction.”

Lewis Huntington, development manager at British Land, added: “This multi-storey urban logistics scheme is the first of its kind in central London and has market leading sustainability credentials.”

Completion is due in Q3 of 2025.