Savills Investment Management has acquired another logistics unit in Łódź. The property was purchased from Invesco Real Estate, the global real estate investment manager, on behalf of the Savills IM European Logistics Fund 2 (ELF 2), which now owns 26 properties in Europe.

Accolade and Aareal Bank of Germany have agreed on the refinancing of six parks in Szczecin, Bydgoszcz, Lublin, Legnica, Białystok, and Zielona Góra in Poland.  This refinancing, in an aggregate value of €153 million, is one of the largest financial transactions in the industrial real estate segment in Central Europe.

Three tenants – LPP, Investa and Centor – have decided to extend their leases in Segro Logistics Park Stryków near Łódź, in deals that together amount to almost 80,000 sqm.

Elite Partners Capital has acquired a warehouse in Mszczonów, Poland for more than €30 million from a subsidiary of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. The transaction spearheads its build-up of a portfolio of specialised logistics assets in Europe to address opportunities arising from COVID-19-related disruptions.

CTP Invest is commencing construction of a new industrial park in the Poruba district of Ostrava, named ctPark Ostrava Poruba. Groundworks began in the summer and the initial project phase should be completed within six months, with the first companies moving in at the beginning of next year. The developer plans to invest more than €57 million (CZK 1.5 billion) in the project. Four large halls with production facilities and warehousing will be built at the site, which will offer almost 90,000 sqm of lettable area. This is the fifth ctPark in the Moravian-Silesian Region, besides the ctParks at Ostrava Hrabová, Nošovice, Nový Jičín, and Karviná.

Panattoni has begun construction work on a new distribution building in Panattoni Park Poznań IX. Rhenus Logistics S.A. – part of the Rhenus Group – is to take up 18,000 sqm. The building will be ready for use from June next year.

Panattoni is extending Panattoni Park Gdańsk Airport to meet the needs of a new tenant. Leading logistics operator PEKAES is to take up 11,500 sqm with a further 4,000 sqm secured for its future expansion. From March 2021 the tenant will have both traditional warehouse and cross-docking space at its disposal.

The market of industrial spaces in the west of Romania, respectively in the counties of Timiș, Arad and Bihor, continues to attract the attention of investors, after doubling its volume in the last ten years, ranking second after Bucharest. CBRE recently advised pan-European developer VGP on the acquisition of a 39-ha land plot in Arad. 

Mountpark Logistics has started construction work on a 26,000 sqm inventory distribution centre at Mountpark Sered in Slovakia. The building, which has the potential to create over 300 jobs for local people, has been designed to achieve BREEAM ‘very good’ accreditation and is on schedule to complete in the first quarter of 2021.

Every year, the number of BREEAM and LEED-certified warehouse buildings in Poland increases. There are several reasons for the growth of sustainable development in the sector. On the one hand, educated tenants put pressure on developers. On the other hand, developers themselves increasingly adhere to the decisions of the Paris Agreement, which sets out a global action plan to prevent global warming. In the latest development schemes, companies strive to reduce the negative impact on the environment through more thoughtful development planning and by reducing the carbon footprint. Currently, certification is particularly popular in the office sector. But warehouse developers increasingly strive to meet the BREEAM or LEED construction standards too. Often long before the completion of the scheme, warehouse developers try to demonstrate that the project meets the requirements of sustainable construction and ecology by obtaining pre-certification. Indeed, the new green construction standards for new buildings are slowly becoming the norm within the warehouse sector.