Nike's 20-year commitment to Corby as firm signs long lease to place the town at the centre of its UK logistics operation

Yesterday, this newspaper revealed that Nike was set to open a logistics campus at Magna Park off the A43 which will employ hundreds.

Now new details have been revealed by GLP, which runs Magna Park, about Nike’s long-term assurances to Corby.

The US firm has signed a twenty-year lease on the 1.3 million sq ft site, which is currently an empty brownfield space adjacent to Cowthick Plantation. It will become the principal hub of Nike’s UK supply chain.

The entry to the building will be timber framed, and workers, which the firm is calling ‘athletes’, will have access to running tracks in the plantation, as well as open-air gyms, multi-use games areas and recreation facilities including open terracing for breaktimes.

There will be an exercise route of 5.76 km, a 2 km nature trail, and 3.7km of other footpaths including for the use of cyclists.

GLP says the campus will be ‘sensitively designed and in keeping with the local area’, and says the facilities will be ‘fundamental to attracting and retaining talent’.

The campus will target a BREEAM ‘outstanding’ rating and achieve net zero carbon in construction.

Nike yesterday told this newspaper that their focus was on attracting people who wanted to stay with the firm long-term, as is the case with their existing logistics park in Belgium where a quarter of staff have worked there for more than ten years.

Legal & General have been unveiled as the be the strategic partner in the project – the investment previously acted as strategic partner for the delivery of Waitrose’s first national distribution centre at Magna Park in Milton Keynes in 2014.

Bruce Topley, UK managing director at GLP, said: “We are delighted to be welcoming Nike to Magna Park Corby. This new site will help boost skills and generate high-quality jobs.

"The industry-leading, bespoke building will minimise carbon footprint and embed health and wellbeing. This investment is a great vote of confidence in the East Midlands and will help propel much-needed long-term growth across the region."

Neil Dovey, head of annuity transactions for Legal & General, said: "Nike's UK Logistics Campus in Magna Park Corby is ideally aligned with Legal & General's commitment to investing long-term capital into assets that are economically and socially beneficial.

"We are delighted to be working with GLP, a developer aligned with our principles, to deliver a first-class building, and are looking forward to partnering with Nike as a long-term property owner following completion."

Two of the completed units at Magna Park have already been let – the first to modular housing building Top Hat, who won’t yet move in because of cashflow issues.

The second unit has recently had a lease completed and more will be revealed about the tenant in the coming days.

Nike will open in the second phase of the scheme, with another phase set to get under way shortly. When complete, the site will have seven units with a total floorspace of more than three million square feet.