In Q1 2018, Poland’s total warehouse and industrial stock amounted to more than 14.15 million sqm and another 1.90 million sqm was under construction, the largest quarterly development pipeline on record. Central Poland was the leading regional market, accounting for more than half of new supply and most of the leasing transaction volume.

Element Industrial, a property developer founded by businessman Ionut Dumitrescu, has recently entered the logistics market by announcing its first project, Eli Park 1 in the Chitila area, west of the Romanian capital. The project will require an investment of €25 million.

Panattoni Europe is developing another warehouse facility for an e-commerce business. This time it is expondo Polska, which will take up 30,000 sqm at Panattoni Park Zielona Góra, currently under development. The tenant will be able to move into the complex already in the coming October.

JLL's industrial real estate portfolio has expanded with the warehouse development called DOCK, owned by Dock Ingatlan Kft., in the Csepel Free Port area of Budapest. Following the real estate development in the 3.5-hectare area, a total of 15,000 square meters will be available for rentable warehouse space. Additionally, as a further development potential, the owners also highlighted the area of 80,000 square meters located on the northern part of the Free Port.

CTP continues to grow its industrial and logistics portfolio in Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The developer also secured €35 million refinancing for two of its Czech hotels. CTP posted an update on its operations in several countries.

LPP SA, the owner of brands including Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito and Sinsay, has leased 16,000 sqm at Panattoni Park Gdańsk III, which will be dedicated to e-commerce. The complex is currently under development, and the tenant will be moving in already in Q3 2018.

According to JLL, Prague is still the largest sub-market in the Czech Republic, but a great deal of attention is also being paid to the border areas. In Q1 2018, almost 25% of all new industrial supply in the first quarter was delivered in the Karlovy Vary region for example. These include Panattoni Park Cheb and CTPark Aš, which together brought more than 50,000 sqm of new warehouse space to potential tenants. In another part of Northwest Bohemia, the Ústí nad Labem region, many projects have also been completed. The region represented 20% of the total completed industrial space and the third most active region by new premises delivered.

The Polish industrial market just closed its best start to the year to date with demand hitting around 1.1 million sqm. Furthermore, 1.8 million sqm of warehouse space is currently under construction. JLL summarised the condition of the industrial and warehouse market in Poland at the end of Q1 2018.

The rapid growth of e-commerce is changing the way warehouses are being built. In many BTS buildings, automated or semi-automated racking systems and robots are deployed for product storage and picking, says Krzysztof Czekalski, Technical Director in the Industrial & Warehouse Department at Cresa.

Prologis has begun construction of two new speculative facilities totalling 25,300 square metres at Prologis Park Bratislava. The developments include the 9,800 sqm Building 14, in which 2,900 square metres have been pre-leased by Blitshtein Trading, a food distributor to major markets in Central and Eastern Europe and the 15,500 sqm Building 20.