Technology has created e-consumers and now they are setting new trends for the quality of sales. They expect the kind of solutions that will enable them to verify the product before purchase but also receive it in the shortest time possible. That is why the number one challenge for both internet shops and logistics operators providing services for e-commerce businesses is to be able to deliver products on the same day and minimize the waiting time to only a few hours. In the face of such expectations as well as the dynamic growth in the e-commerce trade, the demand for storage buildings is constantly on the rise and we can see it with our own eyes. The new Panattoni Europe City Logistics Parks concept is a natural and indispensable step that adapts the industrial facilities market to the expectations of our customers and their clients. Already today in Poland, four such parks are under development, totaling €65 million in value and we are going to begin the construction of approx. 600,000 sqm of our City Logistics projects located within the city limits. We have recently started City Logistics Warsaw I, which is the fourth investment within the concept. The investment is the best example of inner city logistics dedicated to fulfilment of online orders – its first tenant was the online supermarket Frisco.pl. To date, Panattoni has invested €65 million in the new concept, and in the future, this figure is set to grow to €1.2 billion and will include projects in the German, UK and Czech markets.

It is very difficult to determine the share of this sector in the warehouse space market for at least two reasons. Firstly, it is the current dispersion of the sector in terms of ownership of this type of facility: some of them are built on small plots by the owners themselves, and additionally there are many old post-industrial locations created around the 1970s. Secondly, the question arises what to measure and what criteria to adopt while comparing both sectors. The inner-city market in Warsaw and the market of logistic facilities in Stryków, where the price per sqm is three times lower, cannot be reduced to the common denominator. Perhaps the comparison would be different if we took into account the income of the enterprises, but it will not give us a full picture of the situation either. As for the main barriers to the development of the inner-city market, these are the availability and the securing of plots where the competitors of city logistics in their acquisition are the residential and office building construction industries.

Robert Dobrzycki, CEO Europe, Panattoni Europe