THOUSANDS of motorists on the daily commute to and from work have seen it mushroom from what was an impromptu scrambling track over the past few months.

Now the gigantic 64,000 sq ft warehouse at the M27/M271 junction, on the western edge of Southampton, is nearly complete.

Rok Development, a city-based development arm of national construction group Rok, secured the pre-letting of Swift Development Centre, as the skyline-dominating building is called, to Sheffield Insulations.

Sheffield, which already has a smaller warehouse on the same Nursling Industrial Estate, is a leading UK supplier of insulation and related products to the construction and industrial markets. A subsidiary of SIG plc, Sheffield will use the super-sized warehouse as a supply point to provide materials for thermal and acoustic insulation for industrial, heating and ventilation uses, dry lining and fire protection.

In keeping with its risk profile of pre-letting and pre-selling most of its projects, Rok Development pre-sold Swift Distribution Centre for £7.4m to insurance giant Allianz Cornhill.

Rok Development's Andy Goodridge said: "It's only when you stand beside the building that you can grasp just how big it is and see why it is set to change the face of the motorway junction.

"I'm looking forward to being able to hand the multi-million-pound building to its new occupiers in the summer."