Panattoni Europe continues its expansion in north-eastern Poland. The developer has leased out 100 per cent of space at Panattoni Park Białystok I and announced the development of the second distribution centre in the heart of Podlasie. Additional 35,000 sqm will be delivered this year at Panattoni Park Białystok II.

Demand for industrial and logistics space in Romania in 2019 reached a total of about 476.000 square meters, a value comparable to that of 2018, when the transactions amounted to a total of 514.000 square meters, according to JLL.

Panattoni has acquired a 14.4-hectare site at ul. Miedziana to build City Logistics Katowice. Construction works at the park, anticipated to feature 70,000 sqm at full build-out, will commence before year-end.

Globalworth Industrial, the industrial and logistics sub-brand of Globalworth, has begun construction at Constanța Business Park, the largest mixed-use project in Romania. The business park is being developed on a plot of some 100 hectares and will include industrial and logistics, production and service space, as well as office buildings and an intermodal hub.

Prologis has started the development of a 21,000 square meter speculative facility at the fully occupied Prologis Park Prague-Uzice in the Czech Republic. The facility will be completed in Q2 2020 and it will offer flexible space solutions for all types of business – logistics/storage or production, with unit sizes starting at 4,500 square meters. It has further development potential for up to another 42,000 square meters.

CTP recently announced Arcadis, ADP and CEVRE as winners of the tender for certifying CTP’s entire portfolio of buildings. Winners were chosen based on track record, capability, ESG activity and cost. Key to the winning the tender was sufficient resources available to certify all 293 buildings in six countries within the timeframe. CTP plans to have all 293 buildings certified by the end of June 2020. The certification process will require close cooperation and transparency among the various parties and each party has dedicated teams to complete the task by the agreed deadline. In total, CTP expects to invest up to €1.2 million into the certification process.

Over the years, warehouse locations outside Poland’s five largest regions have attracted limited interest from institutional investors. However, along with the development of the country's road network and increasing difficulties in recruiting employees in major Polish metropolitan areas, new locations are becoming increasingly attractive for tenants and landlords. In fact, according to a report by JLL, Hillwood Poland and ManpowerGroup, these factors may well translate into higher investment volumes in emerging markets in the next few years.

A second building with 27,000 sqm, of which 9,500 sqm will be taken up by DSV Road, will be erected at the existing Panattoni Park Poznań IV. Following the extension, the park will total 62,000 sqm, and in the future will reach its target size of 87,000 sqm. 

Poland-based proptech company Velis Real Estate Tech announced that its facility management software Singu FM has been implemented across Prologis’ EU portfolio and six U.S. markets. Prologis is a global leader in logistics real estate with a focus on investing in technology that helps customers solve their pain points and run their businesses as efficiently as possible. 

The development of e-commerce has a growing impact on the development of the industrial real estate sector. The origins can be found in the change of our shopping habits – the popularization of e-commerce has revolutionized logistics operations in warehouses, according to Adrian Semaan, Consultant at the Industrial and Logistics Agency at Cushman & Wakefield Poland.