The Prologis group, the largest real estate agency in the world specializing in the logistics sector, will invest 31 million euros this year in Catalonia to increase its facilities for last-mile transport by 16,000 m2, for the delivery of e-commerce orders.
Cristian Oller, vice president and director for Spain of Prologis, explained that the group is going to build a warehouse in the so-called Puerta de Barcelona, in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, of 8,800 m2, with three docks for trucks and three level access ramps , with an investment of 19 million euros. In addition, the firm is finishing the works of Prologis Park Sant Boi: the transformation of an old industrial warehouse with which it will incorporate 7,000 m2, with 8 docks for trucks and 14 doors for vans.
In Spain, Prologis has 79 logistics centers and is especially strong in the Madrid area, where it has 43 warehouses, with a total area of 771,000 m2. In Catalonia it already has 27 buildings, with a total of 554,000 m2, while in Valencia it operates 9 warehouses, with 91,000 m2. The firm has an occupancy rate of 99.2%.
The group expects availability to drop this year and rents to rise, driven by demand from e-commerce, food, pharmacy and courier operators.
Oller explained that one of the challenges for Prologis is currently to identify land in the first and second crown of the areas where it operates, and obsolete buildings in prime locations that can be put to logistical use. The situation, he explained, is especially dramatic in Catalonia, where, furthermore, he regretted, "the public administration does not help" to mobilize land that can house logistics activity, or asks very high prices for it.
“The price of land is exorbitant and has to go down, because many sectors can no longer absorb these levels of income”, especially those that move products with little added value or low turnover. The lack of land, he assured, can cause rent increases of up to 14%. “At these prices, however, a lot of activity is going to go from Catalonia, Aragon or the south of France. Lleida is not a good option, because the operator who cannot be close to the port-airport-railway axis in Barcelona doesn't care if they go 100 km further to places where land is very cheap”.
