North-West passage

Andrzej Rosiński, the president of the board of North-West Logistic Park and Waimea Holding: Due to a lot of interest in leasable area we are planning the further development of the logistics complex. The park is currently 75 pct leased, but we are closing a few contracts and I hope that 100 pct of the area will be occupied in September. More than half of our tenants are production companies, so we have long-term contracts. We purchased two more plots: of almost 2 ha and almost 3 ha. The project will be extended to hall ‘E’ with a leasable area of 5,400 sqm, the construction of which is to start in the early autumn and which is to be put into operation in spring 2016. There are also plans to build more halls: ‘F’ (app. 4,000 sqm for production activities) and ‘G’ near hall ‘A’. Altogether the seven halls have a combined area of 77,000 sqm over an area of 18 ha. The park will be focused on the production of wind farms. We always try to respond to our tenants’ needs, for example, we are opening a canteen in the warehouse park, which is to be complete in September. We are working on bicycle parking areas and extending the green areas.

Is this the end of your projects in Szczecin?

We are interested in a new project in this city. We are negotiating the purchase of a plot and hope that we will be able to announce the details in autumn. It will be an interesting project because of its location.

And will the scale of the project be similar to North-West Logistic Park?

It will cover an area of 10 ha, so it will be slightly smaller, but it will also hold development possibilities for the future.

And is it the right time to start your project in Młyny, 3 km from the Ukrainian border? Your subsidiary – East A4 Logistic Park – obtained a building permit for a complex under the same name in 2014, but the project was frozen because of the conflict with Russia, among other reasons.

The Szczecin branch of BOŚ Bank is financing this project, so we are starting the construction process. In July we will launch the construction of a 7,000 sqm hall, including a two-storey office section of 1,200 sqm designated, for instance, for customs agencies and forwarding agencies. We are also preparing rest and refreshment areas for lorry drivers, a large car park and of course a warehouse section. We indeed have a building permit for the entire three-building project in: ‘A’ – 7,200 sqm, ‘B’- 14,600 sqm and ‘C’ – 13,100 sqm. The general contractor for the building is Trasco.

Bydgoszcz is another town on Waimea Holding’s map of projects

That’s right. We have secured around 18 ha in the north-eastern end of the town, near ul. Mokra and ul. Chemiczna, where Waimea Logistic Park Bydgoszcz is to be built. It will be a production and warehouse as well as a logistics centre with a planned built-up area of app. 90,000 sqm. We will start with the construction of a BTS hall in the autumn. The first stage will be built over 5.5 ha. We are currently at the stage of applying for the environmental approvals.

Is this the end of your plans?

We are seriously thinking about multimodal projects, which combine various forms of transport. We are mostly interested in combining air freight and road freight as well as sea freight and road freight. I hope that we will have signed the first contract for the construction of a cargo building in July. It will be our ‘other leg’.

So will these multimodal projects be kept in your portfolio and will your already commercialised warehouse parks be changing hands?

This is our plan: we will be selling the warehouse parks and keeping the multimodal projects for ourselves.

Do your development plans stretch beyond the Polish border?

So far we are testing the market, particularly in terms of the development of multimodal projects in the former Soviet countries, but also in EU member states, such as the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

Where will the funds for this expansion come from?

I want to develop the company using three types of financing: our own funds, bank loans and bonds. I am not planning to enter the stock exchange at this stage of our development. Coming back to bonds, we are currently working on the placement of smaller tranches of up to PLN 5–7 mln with private investors. In a year’s time or a year-and-a-half we should be able to extend the tranches to PLN 20–30 mln. If we sell the park in Szczecin it will also make it possible for use to spread our wings to develop as many as 5–6 projects at the same time.