West Pomerania with its 143.5 k square metres of modern warehousing space (the report by Colliers looks at the logistic parks offering the highest standard, i.e. A: North-West Logistic Park (NWLP), Prologis Park Szczecin and Panattoni Park Szczecin) lags far behind the Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia agglomeration (over 314 k sq. m), Wrocław (almost 1.28 M sq. m) and Poznań (almost 1.4 M sq. m).

 

This year, Szczecin will see 32 k sq. m of new warehousing space. By the end of February, the new Hall E with a surface area of 4.6 k sq. m. will be added to the North-West Logistic Park complex in Kniewska street. Panattoni Europe has been building 27 k sq. m. of warehouses in Kablowa street (Szczecin-Załom) since August. The construction is set to be completed in Q2 2016. It is already known that the biggest Swedish distributor of motorcycle accessories and clothes– Pierce AB (in Poland operating through XLmoto.pl and 24mx.pl online shops) will locate its 11 k sq. m. logistic base there.

 

More warehousing halls are to come in the subsequent years. In October last year, Waimea Holding (the owner of North-West Logistics Park) announced that it would develop 40 k sq. m of warehousing space on the premises of the Port of Szczecin between Hryniewickiego and Kujota streets. Before the construction can begin, of Waimea Logistic Park – Szczecin Sea Port has to obtain formal permission form the Ministry of the State Treasury. The NWLP alone will gain two new halls and ultimately will offer 77 k sq. m. of space.

 

Construction of the new halls will mean new contracts for rental of space. In 2015, the West Pomeranian market saw a visible growth year-on-year in demand for space. Over the past 12 months lease agreements were signed for 116 k sq. m. of space with new agreements accounting for 68.5 percent, informs the report by Colliers. According to the consulting firm, the customers that will be willing to move their distributions centres to the region the most will continue to be German and Scandinavian companies. The region will also see more growth in smaller e-commerce businesses.

 

“This may trigger more interest in Small Business Units (SBU)”, hopes Tomasz Kasperowicz, partner and director of Industrial and Logistics Agency at Colliers. SBUs offer space for small warehouses, small-scale manufacturing or a representative office.

 

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