Jaguar Land Rover is in talks with West Midlands property giant IM Properties about a 2.9M SF auto parts distribution centre near Birmingham.

JLR is planning the monster depot to handle the distribution of after-sale parts.

Discussions are focusing on the 238-acre Appleby Magna site, close to junction 11 of the M42 motorway, Midlands Business Insider reports.

The new campus location, acquired by IM Properties in 2016, is one of a handful of Midlands sites capable of delivering a development of this site.

IM Properties has had discussions with North West Leicestershire council.

As recently as 2018 IM Properties applied for permission to develop up to 3.6M SF on the site in units ranging from 200K SF to 1M SF. It has continued to promote the site since.

If the scheme gets the go-ahead, work on-site could start in mid-2020 with the first units ready for occupation by spring the following year.

A planning application is due before North West Leicestershire planners next month.

The JLR announcement comes as IM Properties cements its control over the Midlands’ industrial market with the decision to grant planning approval for their 2.7M SF Peddimore site, Sutton Coldfield.

IM, which is one of the UK’s largest privately owned property companies, is creating the site in partnership with Birmingham City Council after its selection as preferred development partner following a competition. It beat Bericote and Prologis to win control of the 160-acre site.

IM said that Peddimore will be a best-in-class employment park for manufacturing and logistics and is set to create a new industry benchmark for its high-quality design and landscape and an approach which focuses on employee wellbeing and sustainability.

Site-wide infrastructure works are due to begin late this year, with the first 1.4M SF of floorspace ready for occupation by autumn 2021.

“We have spent over 12 months working on this proposal, with a considerable focus on placemaking and challenging many of the perceptions of manufacturing and logistics sites,” IM UK Development Director Kevin Ashfield said.

“As one of the most active developers in the region we are aware that occupiers are looking for the best working environments, which is paired with the fact that there is a critical lack of industrial land supply in the area, so we are already seeing high levels of interest.”

Avison Young, CBRE and Colliers will act as agents on the scheme.