Champion at the crossroads

Even though tenants did not award Panattoni Park Stryków too many points for the attractiveness of the rents, and there were even some negative points for the lack of railway connections, the park still outdistanced the rest of the competition and won the Warehouse of the Year 2014 award. In the survey carried out by Millward Brown, tenants in Stryków gave the most points for the management, security service, technical and infrastructural amenities, the manoeuvring space and the technical service of the facility. “We appreciate Panattoni for their ease of contact. Whenever we have questions concerning possible changes to the facility or modernisations, there is no problem obtaining a quick answer. Besides, Warbud’s technical team that services the park is available for any calls. They operate quickly and promptly. It has never been the case that the area was not cleared of snow or there was too much snow on the roofs. Any damage caused by, for example, a driver’s lack of attention, is immediately evaluated and repaired after being approved by us,” reports Zbigniew Mokrzycki, the manager of Leroy Merlin’s warehouse, which is one of the tenants. The park also scored highly for its technical condition as well as the quality of the materials used, and, interestingly, it had the highest score for fulfilling the current expectations of its tenants.

From zero to over a hundred

The history of Panattoni Park Stryków goes back to 2008 when the first contract was signed by Leroy Merlin. The popular French DIY hypermarkets chain rented 56,000 sqm, which was a record transaction on the warehouse market in Poland at the time. The tenant moved in in spring 2009. “I cannot say one bad word about the facility. Our warehouse, which has an area of app. 50,000 sqm, has been equipped in accordance with our wishes with ramps and a proper, large shelter with an area of 5,000 sqm. The entrance to the warehouse has been constructed to a very high standard. It is also worth highlighting the battery room, which has been adjusted for the large number of forklifts used by us. It was no problem for us to modernise it and extend it as our business was growing,” says Zbigniew Mokrzycki. The facility is Leroy Merlin’s nationwide logistics centre, which includes a cross-dock platform and a central warehouse. Two more buildings were constructed only a few months later. One of them was occupied by Łódź-based logistics and forwarding company Spedimex (17,000 sqm), while another logistics provider, Raben, moved into the other (11,000 sqm). More tenants joined them as time went by. Now the centre also includes tenants such as Schenker (6,000 mkw.), Saint-Gobain (4,400 sqm), Logimed (2,500 sqm), with the total warehouse and office area of the property coming to more than 107,000 sqm. It should be noted that the tenants have stayed in Stryków for longer because contracts were successfully extended – Leroy Merlin and Raben signed subsequent agreements in 2012, while Saint-Gobain agreed to prolong its stay in 2013. “At this time we have a long-term agreement signed with Panattoni. The fact that we prolonged it is proof of our satisfaction – and we are not planning to move out of here in the near future,” said the representative of Leroy Merlin. In 2014 Panattoni sold the park to Blackstone’s LogiCor logistics platform.

Łódź magnet

The facility is one of the very best projects in terms of location. “I think that the location is a very considerable asset of the building. Access is indeed very good from any direction,” claims Zbigniew Mokrzycki. The park in Stryków is located 15 km north-east of the centre of Łódź, alongside the junction of the A1 and A2 motorways connecting it with Eastern and Western Europe. A large contract signed by Panattoni in 2013 with another French chain of DIY shops, Castorama, attests to the attractiveness of the location. The company commissioned a large warehouse with an area of 50,000 sqm, which was built 1 km from the main park and constitutes a separate property, which was, for obvious reasons, not included in the survey of the park currently owned by Logicor. In addition, the proximity of Stryków and Łódź earned the complex the highest scores from tenants for workforce access out of all the facilities included in the survey. Anna Kordos, the head of property management at Panattoni Europe, is not surprised at how well the park scored. “In all its projects Panattoni puts a great deal of emphasis on the location, the quality of the building and the possibilities for organising the space. Furthermore, as a representative of the management department I can say that factors such as the property manager’s quick reaction to questions or problems reported by the tenants as well as the transparency of operating fees are a priority for us,” concludes Anna Kordos. ν