IN Brief:
- ING has provided a £67.1 million green loan to fund PLP Nottingham, a proposed logistics campus beside Junction 27 of the M1.
- The approximately 700,000 sq ft scheme comprises three planned buildings of 459,000, 172,000 and 69,000 sq ft.
- The financing announced on 19 October is separate from planning consent announced in September; completion remains targeted for Q4 2027.
PLP has secured a £67.1 million green loan from ING to finance development of a logistics park beside Junction 27 of the M1 in Nottinghamshire. The financing, announced on 19 October, supports a planned development of approximately 700,000 sq ft across three warehouse buildings. The transaction is distinct from the reserved matters planning consent that PLP announced in September; it provides a new financing arrangement for a project already in the development pipeline.
ING’s facility forms part of the funding for PLP Nottingham, with PLP and its investors also committing equity to the scheme. Neither party disclosed the amount of equity invested, the loan’s interest rate or its contractual maturity. The £67.1 million figure therefore identifies the lender’s commitment, not the total construction budget, the price of the land or revenue from future warehouse occupiers. The announcement also describes this as ING’s first financing transaction with PLP.
The proposed campus covers around 65 acres close to the motorway junction and will comprise buildings of approximately 459,000 sq ft, 172,000 sq ft and 69,000 sq ft. This range would allow a logistics operator to compare a large national distribution building against smaller regional or specialist facilities without requiring a single occupier to take the whole estate. The buildings remain prospective capacity: the financing does not mean that any of them has been completed, let or brought into operation.
PLP has previously described the scheme as a speculative development targeted for completion in the fourth quarter of 2027. Speculative construction means the developer proceeds without relying on a pre-let commitment for every building, exposing it to the interval between construction expenditure and rental income. In that context, the newly announced debt facility provides a defined source of financing while the sponsor retains an equity stake in the project. PLP has not identified signed tenants or disclosed prospective rents in the financing announcement.
The warehouse design includes external yards, dock loading provision and building heights intended to accommodate different types of stock handling. PLP’s scheme information refers to power availability of up to 8 MVA across the development. That figure is a proposed shared supply provision, not proof that 8 MVA will be available independently to each building or that a future customer has reserved a particular electrical capacity. The eventual distribution of power depends on the occupiers’ loads and the completed site infrastructure.
Electrical provision has become a practical consideration for modern warehouses where conveyor systems, automated storage equipment, vehicle charging and temperature control may operate alongside conventional lighting and building services. These systems create different peak loads and duty cycles. Supplying a building with a high nominal connection capacity does not by itself specify its automation level, charging installation or operating throughput. No particular robotics platform or warehouse management system has been selected publicly for the Nottingham scheme.
Access to the M1 is a central part of the site’s planned freight operation. A distribution centre needs suitable road connections for articulated vehicles, room for trailer manoeuvring and time slots that can absorb changes in incoming and outgoing volumes. Vehicle arrival patterns, yard depth, loading-door allocation and the capacity of surrounding roads will determine how effectively an occupier can use the building’s internal storage area. PLP describes the location as within a four-hour drive of most of the UK population, although this is a geographical accessibility statement rather than a guaranteed transport time.
At the site level, space must also be balanced between storage density and vehicle movements. Higher racking can increase the number of pallet positions within a building, but turning space, fire protection, access aisles and material-handling equipment impose their own design requirements. Future tenants may choose conventional forklifts, automated systems or a combination, depending on their product mix and order profiles. The loan announcement does not establish how much pallet capacity the units will ultimately contain.
The parties describe the loan as green financing for an energy-efficient logistics development. ING’s involvement and PLP’s sustainability ambitions do not provide, on their own, a verified assessment of whole-life carbon emissions or measured electricity consumption. The specific lending criteria, environmental reporting covenants and completed-building certifications have not been published in the available announcement. Energy performance will also depend on the fit-out selected by tenants and the way that the buildings are operated after completion.
James Deane, PLP’s chief financial officer, has linked the finance to delivery of the Nottingham park and the company’s first lending relationship with ING. Sophie McGovern of ING’s real estate finance team has identified the location, proposed building specification and sponsor’s experience as factors behind the deal. The lender and developer have not provided a drawdown timetable, construction cost breakdown or binding statement of completion milestones beyond the developer’s existing Q4 2027 target.
PLP Nottingham now has an announced £67.1 million debt facility alongside sponsor equity, following September’s planning milestone. Construction, tenant agreements, connections and commissioning remain separate steps before the proposed buildings can provide working logistics capacity. The next measurable developments will be progress against the construction programme, completed utilities and any confirmed occupier commitments, rather than the loan announcement being treated as evidence of operational warehouse space.
