Leading Midlands commercial developer, Trebor Developments, have completed the pre-sale of 625,000 sq ft to Crown Holdings Inc. at Delta Park Peterborough in one of the largest Freehold turnkey transactions with a total capital value of over £150 million. The site was originally intended as a two-unit speculative scheme but detailed planning consent was secured for Crown’s bespoke build to suit manufacturing facility for aluminium beverage cans in February 2022.

Main contractor ISG Ltd commenced work on site in June 2022 and will complete in Summer 2023. The finished unit will be Crown’s largest manufacturing facility for beverage cans in Europe. The unit is entirely bespoke and has been designed working closely with Crown whilst achieving a fast-track programme.

The site comprises c. 30 acres and is an important brownfield regeneration project having local significance as the former MARS Petcare manufacturing facility that was demolished in 2014. As part of the development Hillwood / Trebor together with Crown have committed to a financial contribution to the enhancement of c. 57km of protected roadside verges across Peterborough City Council authority for bio-diversity measures that will improve large areas of grassland and enhance ecological connectivity.

Greg Dalton, Development Manager for Trebor, commented: “We are delighted to have completed contracts with Crown, having secured planning earlier this year and already started enabling works on site in order to maintain a very fast-track programme. This significant build to suit manufacturing facility will be a fantastic accolade for all parties when completed, we continue to work closely with Crown to ensure the unit is delivered on budget and on programme.”.

Ashwini Kotwal, President of Crown Bevcan EMEA, commented:   “This transaction is the first step towards the development of a new state-of-the art plant. The demand for the infinitely recyclable aluminium packing is growing rapidly in UK with cans being the pack of choice of  consumers and of beverage companies for introducing new drinks. With this investment we are looking forward to serving the demand of our customers in the UK and contribute to employment generation in the Peterborough region.”

Trebor were represented by Avison Young and Gerald Eve.