The Czech Republic once again ranks high in the rating of the 47 best manufacturing destinations. Thanks to a good score in all criteria such as operating costs, labour, political and economic risk and the ability to bounce back after the coronavirus crisis, the country came fifth globally and first in Europe. Since 2016 when the Czech Republic was included in Cushman & Wakefield’s Manufacturing Risk Index for the first time, it has been ranked among the best manufacturing destinations on a regular basis.

Hungarian developer Infogroup has completed the latest building in its Eastern Hungarian industrial complex in the Polgári Industrial Park, which it also operates.  The 4,500 sqm industrial/logistics hall is an extension to an existing 27,000 sqm project in the park.

Austrian company Karimpol Group officially launched the construction of the Squarebizz Bory project in Bratislava which will include retail, storage and office space. Peter Šmitala, Project Manager at Karimpol Slovakia talked to Property Forum about the project and the company’s future plans.

MLP Group has received a Very Good BREEAM International New Construction certificate for its new project at the MLP Pruszków II logistics centre.

Demand for warehouses at 3.15 million sqm and new supply at 1.14 million sqm set new H1 records for the industrial market. Poland registers Europe’s second-highest developer activity with over three million sqm under construction. JLL summarised Poland’s industrial market for H1 2021.

In the first half of 2021, Accolade has achieved a lease of 370,000 sqm of modern and sustainable space to tenants in the e-commerce, logistics, and light industry sectors. The company has also been very active in expanding its current industrial parks and investing in new projects. Almost 100,000 sqm of warehouses have been completed and a further 430,000 sqm of modern industrial space, worth more than €400 million, is under development. 

Leasing activity in the Romanian industrial and logistics market was up 21% to 360,000 sqm in the first half compared to the same period of last year, driven by relocations and the closing of new contracts, according to a report by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

Poland-based warehouse and industrial developer MDC² has acquired a new development site that will accommodate a warehouse and logistics project in the Upper Silesia region, located in Gliwice at the intersection of the A1 and A4 motorways. MDC² Park Gliwice will comprise 52,000 sqm of modern and environmentally sustainable warehouse and logistics space.

Czech investor Arete Group’s third fund, focused on quality industrial and logistics assets in the CEE region, completed the acquisition of a production and storage facility near Beroun, 20 km from Prague. This is the acquisition of a complex used for the production and storage of the Czech company Hronovský s.r.o., which was founded in 1990 and is one of the leaders in the field of cable assembly production, machining on CNC machines, pressing of plastic components and assembly of mechatronic components. The financial volume of the transaction exceeded almost €10 million.

The first big tenant has moved into the first completed unit of the HelloParks industrial and logistics megapark located in Maglód, next to Budapest. FoxPost, the operator of the largest parcel locker chain of Hungary, has leased an area of 8,400 sqm and already started the installation of its new parcel sorting machines. With this investment of €1.5 million, FoxPost’s daily parcel sorting capacity will be increased by nearly tenfold.