Real estate investment manager AEW announced this week that it has secured, in an off-market transaction, a plot of land to develop the project Hanover City Distribution Centre, a multi-let light industrial and urban logistics scheme in Hanover, Germany, on behalf of Logistis, its specialist pan-European logistics strategy.
Hanover City DC will provide 32,800 m2 of modern Grade A space across five buildings with the flexibility to let up to 12 units which are targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises and established operators looking for smaller scale urban logistics space. Designed to a high specification, the scheme will include smart metering, LED lighting, e-charging stations, and is targeting a DGNB Gold rating. The project is being developed by Panattoni and is due for delivery in spring 2023.
This development represents the fourth ‘City DC’ to be developed for Logistis to meet the strong demand for light industrial space in and around Germany’s main cities, including Berlin, Rhine-Ruhr and Stuttgart.
Ludovic Bernini, fund manager of Logistis at AEW commented: ‘The acquisition of Hanover City DC is an important milestone for LOGISTIS, establishing a presence in a strategic location for industry which is within the major logistics market of Northern Germany. This prime development also grows the number of smaller units available to occupiers in LOGISTIS’s portfolio. The scheme will be developed on a speculative basis in line with our other City DC projects in Germany and we are confident that Hanover City DC’s attractive location will satisfy the strong occupier demand in this area where there continues to be a lack of good quality supply.’
AEW’s strategy for Logistis is to continue to diversify and intensify its footprint across Europe’s main logistics hubs, deploying a develop-to-core strategy focused on strategic locations and assets, ranging from large multi-modal logistics parks to urban logistics platforms.
Since the launch of the platform in 1999, LOGISTIS has built up a portfolio of 3.3 million m2 comprising 117 logistics assets spread over 49 sites in Europe. In addition to this completed portfolio, there are 40 buildings under construction with a total surface area of 1.2 million m2 and a development pipeline of approximately 0.2 million m2.
AEW was advised by GSK Stockmann Rechtsanwälte, Cushman & Wakefield and Nova Ambiente.
