Panattoni starts speculative project in Poznan

Warsaw-based industrial real estate group Panattoni Europe has commenced construction of the sixth warehouse facility at its park in Poznan. The Navo building at the Panattoni Park Poznan I distribution centre will offer nearly 11,000 m² of space and is being developed on a speculative basis, the company said.

Panattoni has secured logistics services company Navo Polska Grupa Dystrybucyjnaas as first tenant for the scheme, occupying over 6,000 m² of space.

'In connection with the growth of Navo PGD and the strategy for the next three years, we have faced a need to improve the operations of our Distribution Centres. Panattoni Europe's offer, due to its high flexibility, has turned out to be the most compatible with our development plans, which has led to furthering our long-term cooperation,' said Mariusz Latos, operating director of Navo Polska Grupa Dystrybucyjna. Panattoni Park Poznan I offers a total of 172,00 m² of space across six buildings.

Also this week, Panattoni Europe started development of a further distribution centre near Warsaw. The 30,000-m² Panattoni Park Cewiêcice will consist of two buildings, with the first one representing a build-to-suit project with a total space of over 17,000 m². The scheme is planned for completion in Q2 2011.

In an interview with PropertyEU earlier this week, Panattoni Europe's head of CEE, Robert Dobrzycki said that appetite for logistics project financing is improving in the region. 'Development lending is starting to come back, especially for Poland and the Czech Republic,' he told PropertyEU at EXPO REAL. Dobrzycki mentioned major banks such as Unicredit, WestImmo and BerlinHyp as the most active in the sector. US-based Panattoni entered the European market in 2005 and has since built up a logistics portfolio worth over EUR 1 bn in CEE.