The agreement between EV Motors, through the Ebro brand, and the Chinese Chery Automobile for the reindustrialization of the old Nissan plant in the Barcelona Free Trade Zone opens a new stage for the motor industry in Catalonia. Both companies plan to begin assembly of the first vehicles this year. Goodman, the logistics giant in charge of setting up and managing the facilities, contemplates that its arrival will be a dynamizer of the logistics floor that it directly manages.
The company has 144,000 square meters spread over three multi-level buildings on the premises. “We can create synergies with new tenants by solving their logistical needs or through their suppliers,” comments the director of Goodman in Spain, Ignacio Cuenca, who adds that there are still no negotiations on this aspect.
The company has received interest from potential clients to occupy this space, but has preferred to wait for the negotiations on the industrial section to be resolved. “We never considered this project as solely logistical. We are a multi-product promoter and we saw clearly that reindustrialization was possible,” he adds. The company was the only one that submitted to the Free Trade Zone Consortium competition.
The Australian multinational, which has an operating contract for the next 50 years, has an investment commitment of 100 million euros in the transformation of the entire 500,000 square meter facility. The D-Hub of Chery and EV Motors will occupy a plot of about 300,000 square meters, while Silence, Acciona's electric vehicle brand, has another plot of 70,000 square meters and Nissan maintains 40,000 square meters. The remaining 100,000 squares are dedicated to logistics.
In recent months, Goodman has been in charge of preparing the D-Hub space. These facilities were originally designed for a single user, and have now had to be transformed to accommodate a strategy with several companies. In this way, new spaces adapted to the current needs of Chery and Ebro have been built.
All work has been carried out applying a circular economy perspective. The company has ensured that materials extracted during the demolition and land development process are recovered (recycled and reused locally). The company has also made a significant investment to improve the accessibility of the area and the integration of the project into its environment from an urban and architectural point of view.
Regarding logistics spaces, the main warehouse has a useful area of 81,613 square meters, while the other two are smaller, with 42,348 square meters and 20,619. All platforms have high energy efficiency standards, solar covers and chargers for electric vehicles. Green and rest areas have also been created to humanize the area.
With total assets under management of €38.6 billion, Goodman is the largest industrial property group listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and one of the largest listed specialist fund managers globally. It has more than a thousand employees on staff and 26 offices in 14 countries.
