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Build-to-suit Warehouse Unit Agreed

Posted on by David Priestman

Prologis, a leading developer of logistics property, has signed an agreement with Hankook Tyre UK Ltd, to provide a new build-to-suit warehouse unit at Prologis Apex Park, in Daventry.

Hankook Tire & Technology is one of the world’s leading tyre manufacturers and its UK subsidiary has used the location of Daventry, including Apex Park, as its main distribution hub. The company has agreed terms to take DC9, a brand new, high spec unit comprising 357,221 sq. ft. on a 22-acre site on the park. Construction is scheduled to complete in early 2024.

Since entering the highly competitive UK tyre market in 1993, Hankook has been recognised as an industry leader – in product performance, innovation, productivity and sustainability. This new development forms part of the organisation’s plans to continue to grow its UK business.

Prologis Apex Park is part of a thriving employment area on the northern edge of Daventry in Northamptonshire. The site, which sits within the logistics ‘golden triangle’ at the heart of the UK’s motorway and rail network, has convenient access to the A45, M1 and M45, as well as the rail freight facilities located at nearby Prologis RFI DIRFT. Other Prologis customers at Apex Park include Toolstation, JD Wetherspoon, Hellmann Logistics, Optima Logistics and Cummins.

Construction of DC9 at Apex Park for Hankook is another example of Prologis’ ability to offer customer-centric development – with the unit size and specification tailored to meet Hankook’s requirements from the outset.

James Straw, Associate, Capital Deployment and Leasing at Prologis UK, said: “Hankook has been a customer of ours at Apex Park for a number of years and so it’s fantastic to be able to work with the business to provide a new state of the art logistics facility for their future growth and expansion. At Prologis we have a strong track record of delivering build to suit projects and are constantly looking at ways to improve our buildings. We are delighted to be delivering a building which will meet Hankook’s high expectations both operationally and from a sustainability perspective. Construction will soon be underway and like Hankook, we can’t wait to see DC9 come out of the ground.”

Chang Yool Han, Managing Director of Hankook Tyre UK, said: “Apex Park was the obvious choice for our growth as it meant we were able to provide continuity for our existing staff, and execute our growth in the utmost sustainable and ecofriendly manner plus it serves as an excellent central location for the UK market that we supply. We have been working with our advisors Drake & Partners and Excello Law for a significant period to understand our current and future requirements to grow the business and Prologis have also worked closely with us to accommodate what we need. Moving into DC9 is a significant step on our growth journey and we are looking forward to working with Prologis further”.

DC9 at Prologis Apex Park is due to start imminently, with completion expected in early 2024. Prologis were advised by ILP Partners, Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers. Hankook was advised by Drake & Partners.

Global Network Becoming Carbon Neutral

Posted on by David Priestman

Arvato Supply Chain Solutions has switched the energy supply of five more distribution centres in the USA to green electricity from wind and solar energy, aiming to be carbon neutral. Following the warehouse in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, four distribution centres located in Louisville, Kentucky, and one in Valencia, California, now also obtain electricity from renewable sources. This will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by an average of around 3,100 metric tons of CO2. This is a further step in the sustainability strategy of the supply chain and e-commerce service provider, which, together with its parent company Bertelsmann, aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.

“To enable us to achieve this ambitious goal, all Arvato sites worldwide will be converted to green electricity,” says Mitat Aydindag, President of Arvato North America, explaining the strategy. “It underscores our company’s commitment to environmental protection and the responsible use of natural resources. It’s important to us that our success is measured not only by economic figures, but also by the measures we’ve implemented to build a more sustainable organization.”

In general, however, the supply of “true” green power, i.e. power from renewable sources such as solar and wind, is still very limited in the U.S., and making the switch is sometimes very difficult, depending on the region. That’s why Arvato Supply Chain Solutions in Louisville, Kentucky, is working with two local electric utilities, LG&E and East Kentucky Power Cooperative. Both companies offer a green power program that buys “green” energy to offset the electricity consumed on-site. “Because our distribution centres in Louisville are among the first in the U.S., we are especially proud that these sites are now purchasing green electricity to support the expansion of renewable energy in the region,” says Rachael Miller, Site Director for Arvato’s Louisville campus.

The Valencia, California, site, on the other hand, relies on the Clean Power Alliance. Clean Power Alliance is the locally operated not-for-profit electricity provider for 30 cities across Los Angeles County and Ventura County, as well as the unincorporated areas of both counties. Here, the traditional utility provides transmission and distribution of the electricity, while a third party purchases the green power on behalf of program participants. In 2020, 70 percent of the electricity provided came from solar power and 30 percent from wind power. “It’s very encouraging when businesses make the leadership decision to select 100 percent renewable energy as their preferred power option,” said Matthew Langer, Chief Operating Officer at Clean Power Alliance. “When companies like Arvato choose to use renewable energy in their operations, it can help spur demand for more renewables in the market and contribute to the renewable energy transition.”

This view is shared by Stephan Hackert, Vice President and Industry Lead Healthcare U.S. at Arvato: “All of our employees in the U.S. are very proud of this commitment – after all, we are successively sourcing more and more of our country-wide electricity needs from clean, renewable sources.” These kilowatt hours make an important contribution to the targeted climate neutrality. “Having already made a decisive contribution to achieving our climate protection targets with these measures, we will now look at the remaining emissions and consider which measures we can use to compensate for them,” adds Aydindag.

At the beginning of the year, Arvato’s newest location in Las Vegas was officially opened. Following the ambitious decision to become climate-neutral by 2030, Arvato placed a high value on sustainability while designing the warehouse. The logistics centre, for example, was designed with a reflecting roof that absorbs only a small amount of direct sunlight. It effectively prevents the building from overheating, lowering energy usage for air conditioning. The highly efficient LED lighting with connected occupancy sensors deployed throughout the building also contributes to energy savings. Furthermore, the warehouse has around 250 skylights that allow plenty of daylight into the building, thereby reducing the power consumption.

“Sustainability is a continuous improvement effort,” highlights Aydindag. Arvato Supply Chain Solutions has a total of 87 warehouses on five continents with more than 27 million square feet of storage space. In the US, the warehouse network includes a total of 10 locations in Ontario (CA), Valencia (CA), Las Vegas (NV), Pleasant Prairie (WI), Louisville (KY) and Memphis (TN), where comprehensive logistics services are provided to numerous customers in the consumer tech and healthcare industries.

Class A Modern Industrial Park in Poland

Posted on by Keith McKinley

At the turn of the new year, Accolade group completed the development of a industrial new park in Elbląg – the second largest city of the Warmian – Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. Elbląg Park is situated just five kilometres from the city centre, and a 35-minute drive from the port of Gdansk. Its proximity to the S7 expressway means it is also well-connected to Warsaw and Krakow.

Elbląg, with a population of 120,000 inhabitants and two universities, struggles with a relatively high unemployment rate. “The creation of our new industrial park brings with it 200 new jobs. Elbląg offers access to a wide range of potential employees, and we are looking forward to filling the gap on the local employment market. – explained Jarek Wnuk, Managing Director of Accolade Poland. “Currently there are no other class A warehouses in the immediate vicinity, and this is not the first time that we have entered a logistically underserved region and thrived. Accolade’s strategy to choose locations that are not obvious choices at first glance is based on our years of experience and ability to identify the potential of smaller cities and grow them together. Elbląg is another example of this successful approach – the park is already fully leased.” added Wnuk.

The Accolade park is the first class A industrial park in Elbląg. This 20,000 m² warehouse, consisting of 2 buildings, is situated on a 7 ha plot and is fully leased to two tenants: Flex (FLEXTRONICS INTERNATIONAL POLAND SP. Z O.O) and DPD.

Flex is an international electronics manufacturing services company that provides innovative design, engineering, manufacturing, real-time supply chain insight and logistics services to companies of all sizes across various industries and end markets. In addition to Lodz, Elbląg is yet another location where Flex has set up dedicated premises for a range of future activities.

DPD, the international parcel delivery network, is already an Accolade tenant in many other locations, such as Białystok, Koszalin, Jelenia Góra, and Bydgoszcz. Entering Elbląg is another step in this successful partnership and demonstrates that Accolade is not only an industrial real estate investor, but also an experienced asset management company which understands their tenants’ needs and grows in step with their business.

As with all the parks in Accolade portfolio, the Elbląg park is BREEAM certified (Very Good) and will soon be equipped with Accolade’s green solutions, such as e-waste containers, AEDs, and little landscaping on the plot surrounding the buildings.

Last-mile Logistics Estates in Greater London acquired

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Prologis, a leading owner and developer of UK logistics real estate, has further strengthened its portfolio in London and the South East, with the acquisition of two prime urban logistics estates in Park Royal and Watford (pictured) . This transaction continues the company’s strategic focus on Greater London, following recent acquisitions in Croydon and Erith in July.

Comprising more than 360,000 sq. ft. of prime last-mile logistics space, on a total of 17 acres, both estates offer a range of Grade A units and are 100% leased to customers operating in diverse industry sectors including distribution, construction, pharmaceutical and film and television.

Located in two densely populated urban markets, Prologis Central Park (Park Royal) and Prologis Imperial Park (Watford) are strong additions to the UK portfolio, with both benefiting from excellent connectivity to London and beyond. Situated at the heart of Park Royal, the capital’s premier industrial and logistics estate, Central Park was built in 2014 to BREEAM ‘Excellent’ specification. Imperial Park was built in phases from 2000 and is well located less than 5 minutes from Junction 5, M1 in Watford, north west London’s principal commercial district.

The purchase of both assets complements Prologis UK’s existing portfolio – expanding holdings at Park Royal and, in the case of Watford, increasing the company’s presence along the southern M1-London corridor. The Watford site in particular adds to a number of successful projects in Hemel Hempstead.

Paul Weston, Regional Head of Prologis UK: “The purchase of these prime urban logistics estates illustrates our confidence in and appetite to grow our last mile offering servicing London and the South East. We look forward to working with new customers across the two parks, all of whom are welcome additions to our business.”

The assets were acquired from Schroders Capital who were advised by Gerald Eve.

Prologis starts spec life science development in Cambridge

Posted on by David Priestman

Work has started on the first wholly speculative development of new multi-let laboratory and office space at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which is specifically targeting a range of growing biotech and life science businesses.

Situated on the southern edge of the campus, the new 103,000 sq ft five-storey building at 1000 Discovery Drive will form part of the very definition of an expanding ecosystem of clinical, academic, and commercial excellence.

Since announcing plans to develop the building in October last year, Prologis UK has received numerous expressions of interest in the new development from biotech and life science businesses, providing flexibility to meet start-up, spin-out and scale-up options for healthcare research facilities.

Andrew Blevins, Head of Life Sciences at Prologis UK, said: “Opportunities to lease life sciences property of this calibre that allows established and up and coming research-led businesses to, quite literally, brush shoulders with big pharma, leading academics, research scientists and experts in clinical medicine, is unprecedented in this country. We already have a strong pipeline of customer interest and are expecting more to come.”

Designed with flexibility in mind, the new building will provide laboratory and office space in a variety of sizes and specifications, ranging from open plan to laboratory and office space equipped.

The opportunity to be part of an established, vibrant, life science ecosystem is likely to be the main draw for organisations choosing to locate at Cambridge Biomedical Centre. As well as being co-located with the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, the campus is home to world leading hospitals such as Addenbrookes and Royal Papworth as well as facilities for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

Prospective tenants will be based with the nation’s leading scientific minds in reach, as the campus also includes other leaders in healthcare innovation and discovery such as the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, colloquially known as the “Nobel Prize factory”, Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Institute and the corporate and research headquarters for AstraZeneca and Abcam.

The new building will deliver important amenities for the wider campus and community, including a café and open-source community centre, where businesses, visitors and scientists can come together to share ideas, collaborate or simply meet. Set within the wider context of the surrounding community, the aim is to create a building that is socially inviting and explorable.

The welcoming design also forms part of the emerging Cambridge Biomedical Campus’ 2050 Vision, which is focused on improving connectivity with the surrounding community in Cambridge and encouraging local people to visit the site and enjoy its green spaces.

Kristin-Anne Rutter, Executive Director of Cambridge University Health Partners adds: “In Cambridge, our mission is simple – to improve lives by bringing together the academic and foundational institutions, the NHS and industry to improve health through breakthrough discoveries that are rapidly tested and scaled to deliver benefit to the world. To facilitate this we need to create the spaces where people can serendipitously meet and purposively come together to collaborate to develop ideas particularly around the prevention and early diagnosis of diseases and how we tackle global health inequality. 1000 Discovery Drive will be an important part of this process on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. It will offer future tenants not just the best facilities but encourage people to talk, listen and work together in a place which is already home to over 20,000 people dedicated to making a difference.”

Such is the level of interest in the new building that Prologis has already begun the design for multiple follow-on buildings for both speculative and pre-let development.

Andrew Blevins, Head of Life Sciences at Prologis UK, added: “There is intrinsic value in creating a space where the brightest academic, business, and clinical minds converge to build an ecosystem, sharing not only space and infrastructure but new ideas and intellect. The value of this has already been demonstrated by the successful expansion of the campus to date, but there is much more to come.”

To further support the development within the region, Prologis UK has committed £1.65 million to support public arts and community activities at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest investments of its kind in the Cambridge area to date. Most recently, the campus hosted an open-air artwork by Luke Jarrom, In Memoriam, constructed out of 120 flags made from NHS bed sheets.

Prologis Adds 4 Properties to Dutch Portfolio

Posted on by David Priestman

Prologis, Inc., the global leader in logistics real estate, announced today it has acquired four new distribution centres in the Netherlands from KKR, a leading global investment firm, and Mirastar, a leading pan-European developer, investor, and property manager. The properties are located in the prime logistics locations Bleiswijk, Roosendaal and Hoofddorp (Schiphol), in the Netherlands and cover a total of 127,000 square meters of rentable floor area. Built with a strong environmental focus, these modern facilities are accredited BREEAM Excellent and Very Good, featuring LED lighting, solar panels, and EV charging points.

Sander Breugelmans, Senior Vice President Prologis: “These acquisitions highlight our focus on creating logistics hubs in the core European markets that our customers need to be in. We are excited to add these four buildings to our portfolio and continue to serve our customer growth needs with strategically located and highly sustainable properties in the Netherlands.”

Bleiswijk DC3
Built in 2021, this facility covers 48,498 square meters, is already 100% occupied and rated BREEAM Very Good. This acquisition further expands Prologis’ presence in the Rotterdam market and underscores the company’s ability to continue to offer new logistics solutions in core locations across Europe.

Roosendaal DC2 and DC3
Prologis adds these two newly built (2021) properties to its portfolio in the extended gateway market of Roosendaal, in the south of the Netherlands, which links inland Europe to the coast. Fully leased, Roosendaal DC2 (33,317 square meters) and DC3 (10,168 square meters) are certified BREEAM Excellent and significantly expand Prologis’ presence in the heart of one of Europe’s busiest logistics corridors.

Schiphol DC5, Amsterdam
The Amsterdam portfolio will be complemented with the recently built (2022) Schiphol DC5 facility, which is certified BREEAM Excellent. With its location next to Schiphol airport, an international hub for logistics and distribution, the 34,509 square metre warehouse is already leased for 50%.

Infinium Logistics Makes Trio of Senior Hires

Posted on by David Priestman

Infinium Logistics, a global logistics solutions business, announces that it has hired L&G’s Tom Gough as Investment Director; former Deliveroo, Amazon and Gett legal heavyweight, Chris Fletcher as General Counsel; and Amazon’s Ben Clark as Acquisitions Manager.

The three strategic hires follow the successful launch of Infinium’s debut property investment fund – GreenPoint Infinium Holdings LP. The world’s first dedicated EV fleet charging real estate fund, it was oversubscribed by investors and provides £500m in firepower to invest in FleetHubs – a new sustainability-focused asset class which combines commercial real estate and low carbon energy infrastructure to drive efficiencies and create a better working environment for last mile delivery service providers.

Tom Gough joins the business to lead its property investment strategy, overseeing its real estate origination team and sourcing FleetHubs sites across Europe. With over 12 years’ experience in the real estate sector, Tom was previously Senior Transactions Manager for LGIM’s (Legal & General Investment Management) Real Assets Platform. Working across all funds but more recently focussing on industrial property transactions, Tom sourced deal pipeline for its c.£22bn billion portfolio of UK real estate equity fund on behalf of institutional and retail clients, including its award-winning Industrial Property Investment Fund (IPIF). Prior to joining Legal & General, Tom was at Cushman & Wakefield.

Chris Fletcher has joined Infinium as General Counsel. Chris brings around twenty years of international legal experience to the team, having trained as a lawyer in the City and then worked in senior positions within leading technology-backed global logistics and fleet organisations including Amazon, Deliveroo and Gett. He has extensive experience in rapid growth environments, building and scaling the legal and compliance functions in the technology, real estate and asset management sectors.

Ben Clark has joined the platform as Acquisitions Manager, in a newly created role dedicated to sourcing and acquiring sites for the development of EV FleetHubs and HGV truck stops. With eight years’ real estate transactions and leasing experience, Ben has previously worked for Amazon, CWM (recently acquired by CBRE) and KLM Retail.

Phil Bayliss, CEO of Europe, Infinium Logistics, commented: “With these hires Infinium takes a big step forward in our transactions capabilities and ability to secure innovative deal pipeline as we seek to deploy capital into the market quickly to capture the once in a generation conversion of transport spend into real estate. I am delighted to welcome Tom, Chris and Ben to the team, they bring with them significant experience in sourcing on and off-market deal flow, structuring complex transactions and scaling platforms.”

Tom Gough, Investment Director, Infinium Logistics, said: “Having a baby in lockdown led me do a lot of thinking about the future and challenged me to be part of the solution for the climate problems we face today and the impact it will have on generations to come. Infinium has given me a fantastic opportunity to use my skillsets and experience to satisfy that brief. I’m excited to be part of an agile team with fresh ideas to develop a new asset class and facilitate the decarbonisation of supply chains.”

Established in 2019 and backed by GreenPoint Partners, Infinium Logistics is a Global Logistics Solutions Business with a mission to Decarbonise, Electrify and Optimise the last and middle mile e-commerce space. Responding to the challenges of rising ecommerce, climate change and the geopolitical energy crisis, and as a market leader in ESG, Electric Vehicle (“EV”) transition and renewable energy technologies, Infinium is helping to reshape today’s industrial estate composition and address the severe global shortage of secure parking and clean fuel areas.

Infinium’s property investment fund is seeking sites of over 1.5 acres in key industrial locations across Europe that are situated within a ten-minute drive of its clients’ occupational requirements. Offering excellent grid access, each hub will include a development plan to support its clients EV transition strategies. A 500-vehicle fleet driving one less mile per route, per day is equivalent to around 2,400 trees. With the UK and many European countries having committed to transitioning to EV by 2030, and with over 200 cities in Europe operating Low Emission Zones where polluting vehicles are banned completely or charged fees, fleet and logistics operators cannot afford not to have a transition strategy in place.

Prologis publishes Q3 activity report

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Prologis Europe has published a report on its Q3 2021 activity, showing operating performance highlights and insights into select milestones and achievements.

Ben Bannatyne, President, Prologis Europe, said: “It has been a record quarter of demand, low vacancy and new supply in Europe as we continue to deliver on our customers’ expectations. We continue to return healthy outcomes for our customers and investors in areas including urban fulfilment, sustainability and value-add services – such as our Prologis Essentials Marketplace. Our robust Europe portfolio is supported by positive rent change, strong leasing appetite and heightened demand, which acts as a tailwind to covered land plays and build-to-suit development.”

Prologis Europe Operating Performance – Q3 2021:

  • Total portfolio: 19.6 million sq m
  • Total leasing activity: 752,813 sq m:
  • –          306,997 sq m of new leases
  • –          445,816 sq m of lease renewals
  • Rent change: + 8.4%
  • Leasing Highlights:
  • –          36,609 sq m at Prologis Park Venlo DC4 (NL)
  • –          30,607 sq m at Prologis Park Norrkoping DC1 (S)
  • –          17,072 sq m at Prologis Park Coventry DC8 (UK)
  • –          15,990 sq m at Prologis Park Isle d’Abeau (F)

Capital Deployment – Third Quarter 2021

Q3 Development Starts:

There have been nine new development starts comprising a total net rentable area of 174,730 sq m across the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom. Two starts were significant build-to-suits (Prologis Park Dortmund, Germany; Prologis Park Interporto Bologna, Italy) and seven were speculative developments in direct response to growing customer demand.

Q3 Acquisitions:

Prologis Europe acquired one building with a total net rentable area of 47,807 sq m in the gateway market of Belgium, as well as nine land parcels with a combined total area of 285,898 sq m in Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Bannatyne notes: “While supply constraints remain a reality, our third quarter activity reveals that our data-based, forward-thinking insights and strong industry and community relationships continue to yield attractive opportunities for our customers and investors.

“With our commitment to innovation, technology and continuous improvement, we’re able to provide our customers with industry-leading development solutions in dynamic European markets such as Berlin, Paris and London. Our ability to unlock core land for logistics is critical, as is having an urban fulfilment strategy that actively plans for the logistics need of today’s discerning customers.

“In today’s market, innovation is key. At Prologis, we actively encourage our people to think creatively and outside the industry norms. Our commitment to environmental stewardship, social responsibility and governance (ESG) is a great example. We fundamentally believe that being a good neighbour in our communities is crucial to building long-term trusted partnerships while creating the sustainable development opportunities our customers desire.”

 

 

UK sees record take-up of warehouse space

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Knight Frank’s preliminary data shows that take-up of UK warehouse space in Q3 2021 totalled 15.7 million sq ft, bringing the total amount of space leased this year to 46.9 million sq ft. This is 27% above the Q1-Q3 2020 total and puts the UK industrial & logistics sector on course for a record year, as the unprecedented levels of occupier demand looks set to ensure that the industry will beat the 51.6m sq ft of space taken in 2020.

In addition to ecommerce-driven demand for warehouse space, the recent supply chain crisis has demonstrated the need for greater supply chain resilience, and this is driving new sources of occupier demand. The shortage of HGV drivers, labour and materials, due to a combination of COVID-19, post-Brexit customs measures, and the Suez Canal blockage earlier this year have highlighted the need for simplified, shorter supply chains and shorter more direct routes to consumers.

Companies have accelerated efforts to secure warehouse space where they can hold high levels of inventory close to consumers, minimise delays and ensure uninterrupted service. Food manufacturing and indoor farming are examples of other occupiers taking space recently.

The strong underlying structural trends driving occupier demand has seen the sector attract £10.8bn in investment from UK and global institutions in the first three quarters. This is already higher that the £10.2bn that the sector recorded in 2020, with Knight Frank estimating total turnover for the year to reach £13bn. This will exceed the previous record annual turnover of £11bn which was reported in 2017.

Claire Williams, Industrial Research Lead at Knight Frank, commented: “Strong levels of take-up have been recorded over the past three quarters but the shortage of available space in the market is likely to dampen the level of uptake in the fourth quarter. Last mile logistics operators, parcel carriers, supermarkets and retailers have been competing for suitable space in a chronically undersupplied market over the past 18 months.

“Now with the driver and labour shortage and border delays causing severe disruption, aggravated concerns have caused companies to bring forward warehouse expansion plans across the logistics sector. Many are discovering that quality warehouse space that meets size, location and specification requirements is scarce, given high levels of take-up and construction plummeting due to increased costs and lead times for materials.”

 

 

 

Geodis building sustainable facility in The Netherlands

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Global supply chain operator Geodis is acquiring 21.5ha of land at Trade Port Noord from Greenport Venlo. It plans to build one of the most sustainable logistics facilities in the Netherlands: a 130,000 sq m contract logistics site servicing customers from various vertical sectors and designed to accommodate the current growth in e-commerce.

The Venlo region is one of Europe’s prime spots for logistics activities, located near the Dutch border with Germany, acting as a link between the nearby air and seaports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp with the major industrial markets of the continent.

“Trade Port Noord has excellent connections to the European multimodal infrastructure via road, river, rail, ocean and air. This makes it the ideal location for Geodis to operate cargo flows for international clients, and to manage their warehousing and logistics needs utilizing our European distribution network – and to expand our Benelux-Germany-Poland corridor at the same time,” says Marie-Christine Lombard, CEO of Geodis.

The construction of the new facility will start in 2022. Geodis is committed to protect the environment and ensure the well-being of its employees. This new build will be designed to standards aimed at a BREEAM “outstanding” certification, and a WELL Silver certification. BREEAM is a world-known sustainability assessment method for buildings; WELL is an international standard for creating spaces that enhance human health and well-being.

“Health and safety of our employees have always been our first priority – already before the COVID 19 pandemic, and still today,” says Marie-Christine Lombard. “In the same spirit, the Geodis logistics campus in Venlo will be one of the very few logistics buildings in the world with a WELL certification.”

To ensure all standards for the desired certifications will be in place, Geodis has involved real estate services and investment company CBRE, advising on the land acquisition and project management.

“The new Geodis campus is not only impressive in size, but it is also ambitious. To achieve the highest possible BREEAM-rating, we will pay attention to every detail in both design and material use, as well as design various energy saving systems,” says Tim Habraken, Sustainability Director at CBRE.

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