Business Specialties Development
New Industrial Facility to be Developed for Rip Curl in Southwest France
Oct 8, 2008
By: Tom Dworetzky, News Editor

ProLogis will build a new, 137,000-square-foot industrial warehouse in southwest France for Rip Curl, a global provider of equipment and apparel for the surfing and mountain communities, the developer has reported.

The state-of-the-art facility will be developed on land recently acquired by ProLogis in the city of St. Geours de Maremne. Australia-based Rip Curl plans to use the facility to distribute its products to retailers throughout Europe.

In keeping with ProLogis' green initiatives, the facility is set to have a 250 kilowatt solar array installed on the roof. ProLogis plans to sell the power generated by the solar panels, which will generate an estimated 275,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy per year, back to the local French utility. Construction on the building is scheduled for the first half of 2009.
This  latest solar installation will be its fourth in Europe.

Currently, ProLogis has more than one megawatt of solar panel projects installed or under development in Europe. This includes ProLogis Park Chanteloup in Paris, France, which has an installation estimated to produce 450,000 kWh per year, and ProLogis Park Penedes in Barcelona, Spain, which has an estimated capacity of over 115,000 kWh per year. The company also has an installation at ProLogis Park Malsch in Malsch, Germany, which is estimated to produce 540,000 kWh of renewable energy per year.

Rip Curl's new facility is located along France's A63 motorway, 150 kilometers south of Bordeaux and 80 kilometers west of the Spanish border. The building is expandable by 64,500 square feet. ProLogis also has the option to purchase land immediately adjacent to the site, which could extend the facility another 129,000 square feet.

Rip Curl is a privately owned company with operations in more than 60 countries across the globe. ProLogis is the largest provider of industrial space in France with more than 26.3 million square feet operating or under development, as of June 30, 2008.

 
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