Gazeley, a leading European logistics developer, said it will invest US$1 billion in China over the next five years to capture robust demand for world-class warehousing facilities, the Shanghai Business Journal reported. The company will invest across China but will focus on China’s top three economic zones – the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Bohai region. Gazeley also announced it has acquired a 97,530 square meter block of land in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, to build warehouses. The US$26 million project, which will create 53,000 square meters of warehouse space, will be developed in three phases. The first phase will commence in October and is scheduled to be completed by June 2008. “We’ve realized strong market demand for high-quality warehousing facilities around the Yangtze River Delta region,” said Mr Yang, director of Gazeley China. According to the Shanghai Daily, UK-based Gazeley, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WalMart, entered China in February 2006 and is currently developing a 42,000 square meter logistics base in Tianjin and a 40,000 square meter warehouse in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province. They are due to be completed this month and next July respectively.