Amazon to set up large logistics center for Southern Europe in El Prat
The e-commerce leader will pay €30 million to build a center three times the size of the company's facility in Madrid
BarcelonaLast Monday the Catalan Land Institute (Incasòl, in Catalan) signed the award of a 15-hectare plot in El Prat de Llobregat to Amazon, the giant of worldwide electronic commerce, for 30 million euros. Amazon intends to build one of its main logistic centers for Southern Europe on this site.
Since October Amazon had been aiming the awarding of this land, where it could build a warehouse of up to 210,000 square meters,. This could result in the creation of between 1,400 and 2,000 jobs. The e-commerce multinational expressed its satisfaction for this award, which is now pending formalization. Amazon has one month to sign a security contract, and later complete the purchase of the land.
Amazon's logistics center in Barcelona will three times larger than the one in San Fernando de Henares (near Madrid), which will have grown to 75,000 square meters once the work is completed. The company had wanted to open a larger one in the Barcelona area for some time, but there were some issues that now appear to have been resolved. Amongst these conditions was the extension of the Metro line 9 to the Mas Blau industrial area of El Prat de Llobregat, which is planned for this coming February, a construction permit to build the warehouse, and the construction of some traffic circles in the area to facilitate access by high-tonnage trucks.
Beyond this, the sales contract is subject to the approval of a modification of the Metropolitan General Plan (PGM) to satisfy the company’s request to build up to a height of 19 meters and add other complementary uses to the main logistics use. According to Incasòl, the conditions of the modification have already met various administrative requirements and are close to being approved.
Attending the award ceremony were Artur Mas, acting President of the Generalitat, Santi Vila, acting Minister of Territory and Sustainability, Felip Puig, acting Minister of Business and Employment, Francesc Damià Calvet, Director of the Catalan Land Institute, and Lluís Tejedor, Mayor of El Prat, among other officials.
The President of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, celebrated this "new foreign investment by a large multinational close to El Prat" and said that this project shows that the claim that foreign investment is fleeing Catalonia "because of the independence process" is "radically false".
On the contrary, the acting president said that we are seeing "record figures for foreign investment” and, according to him, this indicates that Catalonia is attractive, and that "we are well positioned and have a future". Mas also noted that the investment will bring with it job creation and will help Catalonia leave the economic crisis behind.
The mayor of El Prat de Llobregat, Lluís Tejedor, expressed his satisfaction for the work done by the council and by Incasòl during the last two years “culminating in a very large investment by a multinational firm" that represents, he said, "an opportunity for economic activity and specifically for job creation, which is our main objective". In his view, the strategic location of El Prat was the determining factor in the company's choice. "From now on I am confident that we can finalize the industrial investment project and work towards realizing the entire operation", he announced.
