The sixth instalment of Prologis’ special report series suggests that any demand slowdown will be short-lived as logistics real estate is poised to benefit from the acceleration in the transition to e-commerce.

Transport company BHS Trans is to build a new logistics warehouse centre on 10,000 square metres in Debrecen, Eastern Hungary. The warehouse is part of a HUF 7.5 billion investment project, which the state supported with a HUF 3.4 billion grant. The facility will go into operation in early 2021 and the project is to create 165 new jobs.

The portfolio of European Logistics Investment BV (ELI) is expanding thanks to a new investment located in Silesia. Together with its strategic partner Panattoni Europe, ELI will deliver a BTS warehouse and industrial space for the Weber company. The 50,000-sqm facility will be developed in Zabrze with the tenant moving there in the second half of 2021. The warehouse in Zabrze expands ELI's portfolio located in Silesia.

Panattoni has signed a lease with the owner of the Polish fashion label Tatuum – KAN sp. z o.o. The tenant will take up 10,150 sqm at Central European Logistics Hub in Łódź, moving in by mid-August 2020. The developer also leased 14,000 sqm of warehouse space in Panattoni Park Tricity East III to Omega Pilzno.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a €125 million loan with Umicore, a Belgian-based global materials technology and recycling group, to finance part of the greenfield production facility for cathode materials in Nysa, Southwestern Poland. The cathode materials will be supplied to battery manufacturers of high-tech lithium-ion batteries that are primarily used in electric vehicles. 

Warehouse occupancy costs are a broad concept that can be interpreted in many ways. The key components include rent and service charges. Utility charges billed according to individual consumption constitute a variable component. And on top of that, there are the costs of labour, logistics, supply chains and use costs of space itself. Tenants frequently forget that rent paid to the landlord is not the only cost of doing business in a warehouse facility. “A service charge is the maintenance cost of a facility that is often part of a larger industrial park - it is reinvoiced to individual tenants by the landlord. Its key component is the property tax levied on the landlord and determined by local municipalities,” says Daniel Kempa, Associate, Industrial & Logistics, Cushman & Wakefield.

Panattoni is launching the construction of close to 15,000 sqm for Phoenix Contact E-Mobility. The BTS facility will be delivered at the Rzeszów-Dworzysko Science and Technology Park, which will promote the tenant’s collaboration with research centres and ensure good access to qualified staff. The building will be commissioned in late 2020/early 2021 and will offer space for 330 employees.

P3 has signed a lease agreement with InPost for 10,882 sqm in the P3 Piotrków park. The modern warehouse and office space will be used for logistic processes within services offered by InPost Fulfillment, an operator for e-commerce companies.

Prologis is extending its UK partnerships with climate change charity ‘Cool Earth’ and sustainability certification company ‘The Planet Mark’ to its European operations, as part of an initiative to reduce and mitigate whole-life carbon emissions in all its new logistics buildings. Under the programme, Prologis will work with Cool Earth to fund the protection of rainforests to mitigate unavoidable embodied carbon emissions in its new developments across Europe and, in this way, help protect an area of rainforest 31 times larger than the size of each building.

The Arete investment and real estate group signed a loan agreement with Raiffeisenbank for up to €80 million. The funds will be used to refinance the existing real estate portfolio of the second ARETE fund (ARETE INVEST Sub-Fund CEE II) and to invest in new industrial assets.