LGIM offers up 280,000 sq ft Trafford data centre opportunity
Acting on behalf of the BMW Pension Fund, Legal & General Investment Management has appointed Index Real Estate to elicit unconditional bids for a site within Trafford Park with consent for either a data centre or a 175,000 sq ft shed.
LGIM secured hybrid consent for the redevelopment of the 7.8-acre Trafford Park Road site earlier this month, which opens the door for a buyer to deliver either a 280,000 sq ft, 36MW data centre or a replacement for the 122,000 sq ft GXO unit that occupies the site currently.
Branded Calibre, the scheme offers a “unique opportunity to secure a presence in a proven market” at a time when large development plots are becoming increasingly “scarce”, according to marketing materials.
The industrial unit option would generate more jobs. A fact reflected in the number of proposed car parking spaces – 156 – compared to the data centre – 51.
The industrial scheme would also provide 20 HGV parking spaces and 20 dock levellers.
Lichfields advised on planning matters and TTSP led on design.
To learn more, search for reference number 118338/OUT/26 on Trafford Council’s planning portal.
Before anyone gets carried away with the glossy CGI renders and talk of a digital future, let’s deal with reality. A development of this scale would almost certainly require a new primary substation and significant grid reinforcement.
For years we’ve been told by Student Union Government we have that the UK is going to be a world leader in AI, although that rhetoric seems to have gone rather quiet recently. The inconvenient truth is that AI and data centres are incredibly energy-hungry, and across the country numerous schemes are stalling because there simply isn’t enough grid capacity available.
We already operate uncomfortably close to generation and network constraints at various times, yet politicians continue to announce major projects as if power is an unlimited resource. It isn’t.
Just look at Stockport, where the proposed data centre has reportedly been held back by power availability issues. That’s the challenge facing many locations across the UK: the demand is there, but the infrastructure isn’t.
Until there is a credible plan for electricity supply, network upgrades, and delivery timescales, this looks less like a cutting-edge data centre and more like another large shed with more low skilled jobs and an ambitious press release attached to it.
By Steve5839
FYI the reference number is 118338/HYB/26 for the hybrid planning permission
By Anonymous