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.

JLL has advised Rosti Romania, owned by the Swedish company Rosti Group AB, in the lease of 11,300 sqm industrial spaces in Paulesti, near Ploiesti, developed and rented out by WDP. The construction of the new production facility, announced by Rosti at the end of last year, has already started and the delivery date is set for 2021.

Panattoni has completed the development of Panattoni Park Bydgoszcz II. The 36,500-square-metre project was built within the city limits, in an investment area of Bydgoszcz.

Panattoni has completed the construction of the 8,260-square-metre logistics centre for DSV Solutions in Skarbimierz. The BTS facility is dedicated to handling the logistics of two Mondelēz International production plants in the vicinity – a chocolate factory and a gum & candy factory. The project was delivered at the Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone, and logistics operations at the facility started two weeks early – at the end of April.

Panattoni has introduced a new façade standard at its parks. The new façade features predominantly aluminium and glass, with a new colour scheme and larger green areas. The makeover is part of the company’s sustainable development approach, which includes reducing CO2 emissions, employee well-being, environmental stewardship, as well as BREEAM certification of newly built facilities with a Very Good rating.