GAZELEY, a leading European logistics space developer, said yesterday it plans to invest as much as US$1 billion into the Chinese mainland over the coming five years due to robust demand for world class high quality warehousing facilities.

The company will extend its footprint country-wide, focusing on the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Bohai Rim areas as well as some northern cities, according to Peter Gomersall, Gazeley's managing director for China, India and Latin America.

Gazeley also announced yesterday that it has acquired a 97,529-square-meter plot of land in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, to build wareshouses, the company's third project in the Chinese mainland.

T h e U S $ 2 6 - m i l l i o n project, which comprises 53,100 square meters of warehouses, will include three phases. Construction of the first phase will start in October and is scheduled to complete by June 2008.

"We have seen clear market demand for high-quality warehousing facilities in the Yangtze River Delta region," said Jack Yang, country director of Gazeley China.

Entering China in February 2006, UK-based Gazeley, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US retail giant WalMart, is now developing a 42,000-squaremeter distribution center in Tianjin and 40,000-squaremeter warehouses in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, which are due to be finished this month and next July respectively.