Prologis announced several promotions at its Czech and Slovak offices. Martin Baláž has been promoted to Vice President of Development and Leasing at Prologis Czech Republic and Slovakia; Václav Krasanovský has been promoted to Vice President of Property Management at Prologis Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary; Martin Stratov moves up to the position of Director of Development and Leasing at Prologis Slovakia. The promotion of Kateřina Březinová to Leasing Manager at Prologis Czech Republic completes this promotion round.

LS Cable, a Korean manufacturing company, has decided to launch its division in Dzierżoniów - in the region of Lower Silesia. The facility will be established within an existing object offering 10,000 sqm. Experts from JLL represented LS Cable in the processes of seeking the appropriate property and negotiating purchase conditions.

Prologis has already fully leased its new 28,300 sqm speculative facility now under construction at Prologis Park Prague-Uzice in the Czech Republic. Construction of Building 3 began in January 2018 and was launched due to high demand for space at the fully occupied park.

Panattoni Europe is to build a courier delivery distribution centre for DHL Parcel Polska. The cross-docking facility will feature close to 9,000 sqm and will be built in Radzymin. Construction works commenced at the beginning of the year and will be finished in October 2018. The lease was signed for 10 years, and the contract was mediated by the international advisory firm CBRE.

The year 2017 saw the greatest amount of industrial space built in Europe in its history – more than 3.7 million sqm. This represents a 68% increase over 2016 and a 55% increase over the existing record dating back to 2007 (an additional 1.2 million sqm). The total industrial space in the region has increased by 17% as a result. Such are the results of a survey conducted by Cushman & Wakefield, a company that has been monitoring the industrial property market in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania on a long-term basis.

As of January 2018, BNP Paribas Real Estate was selected to provide property management services for a real estate portfolio of 60,000 sqm commercial properties owned by OTP Real Estate Investment Fund. The mandate consists of 4 buildings: Akadémia Park, Szépvölgyi 22, Raday 42 and a logistics park in Gyál, at the outskirts of Budapest.

Zalando Lounge, online fashion platform Zalando’s shopping club, plans to build a 130,000 square meters large fulfilment centre together with its developer Hillwood. The new site will increase the logistics capacity of Zalando Lounge and flexibility of operations. Intralogistics will be tailored to the specific requirements of Zalando Lounge, taking temporary campaigns and occasionally larger products from the home category into account. The site will be operated by a provider. About 500 jobs will be created in the mid-term.

Available space on the industrial property market in the Czech Republic decreased and it makes the situation for occupiers in seek of premises more complicated. Potential tenants have to put up with longer terms of project realization in new warehouse spaces. The Czech industrial property market has changed from a market of tenants to a landlords market, JLL reports.

2017 was the best year ever for Poland's industrial market with gross demand totalling 3.9 million sqm, JLL reports. Retailers and logistics operators continued to drive the market, together accounting for more than 65% of net take-up in 2017.

Automation, e-mobility and big data can completely change the game in logistics over the coming years. Martin Polák, Senior Vice President and Regional Head for CEE at Prologis talked to Property Forum about the future of European industrial and logistics markets.