Urban warehouses: making room for specialists
While the supply of newly completed and under construction warehouse space continues to rise, vacancy rates still persistently go down. Contrary to popular belief, this situation is not solely driven by the burgeoning e-commerce or logistics sectors. The warehouse market’s demand structure is now much more diversified.
“To some extent, what we are seeing today stands in a contradiction to how the City Flex products had been defined just a few years ago. It turned out that the properties, which had been originally addressed to the ‘last mile’ delivery providers, sparked interest from companies of many other industries,” says Katarzyna Litwin, Leasing Director at 7R.
As she further explains, a large group of these tenants is comprised of companies that are not fit for operating in office or retail buildings for example due to the particularities of their businesses.
Urban warehouses allow for high flexibility in space utilization, in terms of their floor space or height, and offer an excellent alternative for companies from such sectors as the trade show or training industries, At the same time, these properties are in urban centres, they are well-connected, which gives companies an easy access to qualified labour force. This makes the properties a desirable product also for highly advanced manufacturers, laboratories and pharmaceutical wholesalers.
Katarzyna Litwin
Leasing Director at 7R
For urban warehouse owners, pharmaceutical companies are some of the most demanding tenants, as their operations are strictly regulated by Poland’s Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate (GIF).
“One of the most important parts of our work with this group of tenants is to thoroughly familiarize ourselves with the characteristics of their business, and effectively adapt our warehouse space so it meets the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate requirements,” says Katarzyna Litwin. “Also, we keep on working on new solutions for this particular industry at all times. To give you an example, we have changed a set of panels on the facade to a vertical arrangement as this prevents dust particles from settling down on the panel joints,” she explains.
When it comes to pharma, the 7R portfolio currently offers dedicated reloading space, but also specialized floor space for pharmaceutical wholesalers and factories to operate on.
For pharmaceutical companies, meeting and maintaining certain cleanliness standards, and ensuring the state-of-the-art temperature control, is of paramount importance. Precise performance of temperature measurement and regulation is feasible only in buildings with high insulation features. Of course, there are many more operational aspects to be considered when servicing such a client. These include humidity control or the 'clean' and 'dirty' zone divisions. This type of projects requires the utmost care and attention from us. Failure to meet such important requirements may translate into multi-million losses for our tenants.
adds Katarzyna Litwin
Pilots in Okęcie hall
Poland’s first flight simulator, used for training civil pilots, takes up floor space of the 7R City Flex Warsaw I warehouse hall near the Okęcie airport and is yet another interesting example of how to make use of an urban warehouse centre in unusual way.
“This property does not only fully meet the most technologically advanced needs of the tenant but is also located next to the airport. Such high-class electronic equipment requires precise temperature control and handling. There is no room for error, when devices installed in the building are so valuable,” says Katarzyna Litwin.
Targówek data centres
What 7R is also seeing right now is that the group of companies looking for their potential new data hub locations in Poland is expanding. Their knowledge of regulations on data management is getting better too. The prospects for this market are so promising that 7R has decided to create a team specifically dedicated to this sector.
“When implementing this type of projects, the biggest challenge is the very high demand for electricity consumption, which is typical for data centres. Therefore, in this instance it is crucial to secure a location that ensures the sufficient supply of electricity and reliable deliveries,” Katarzyna Litwin explains, adding that Targówek Przemysłowy could be the ultimate target location for this sector.
According to the 7R expert, this type of high-quality warehouse projects located in urban agglomerations is expected to attract not only tenants but also investors, as those projects are still merely in the starting phase of their growth cycle.
