A leading online retailer will be opening a new delivery station in Harlow within the Saunders-designed ICON Harlow industrial development. Reserved Matters permission for the ‘final-mile’ facility was secured by Saunders in January 2021 providing 83,500sq.ft of warehousing and office space along with a 3 level van deck providing parking and electric charging facilities for up to 415 vans. The building is currently under construction and is expected to be fully operational this summer.

Final mile warehousing is used by distribution companies to serve densely populated areas. Packages are shipped to the delivery station from regional fulfilment and sortation centres, before being loaded into delivery vehicles and delivered to local customers. This speeds up deliveries and dramatically reduces transportation-related carbon emissions. The inclusion of electric charging points throughout the van deck supports the tenants’ sustainability commitment to becoming a carbon-neutral company.

Saunders have been working with ICON Industrial on the redevelopment of the site, known as ICON Harlow, since 2017. After the completion of the first 3 buildings of Phase 1 (delivering 230,000sq.ft in 2019), Reserved Matters approval for Phase 2 (providing an additional 200,000sq.ft) was granted in January 2021 with construction commencing soon after. Works are currently ongoing and due for completion October 2021.