Mixing modernity with history

How can a logistics centre earn the praise of its tenants? If we are to believe the results of this year's Eurobuild Awards, the most important thing is to provide a good location with affordable prices and to settle service fees in a transparent manner. But what might be the most important and at the same time the most difficult of all is to continuously attend to the well-being and comfort of the tenants. It is precisely for these reasons that the park owned by MLP Group has taken the award. Consultancy Millward Brown reported that it scored the highest among all of the warehouse developers in nine of the 22 questions in the tenant survey. In addition to its location, the affordability of its service fees and the transparency of how they are settled, the park also has the advantages of its own railway siding, a high standard for its office space and high quality flooring in its buildings. The park also benefits from a number of improvements the developer has made over recent years and came in second place for several important categories such as its access to public transport, its infrastructure, its parking area for lorries, its security, its quality management and its maintenance services. Finally, the tenants also awarded the park with a score of 4.4 points for how well it met their needs and expectations (on a scale of -5 to 5) with the average score for all the buildings in the competition being 1.1. The parks average score for all the questions came to 3.26, which gave it a huge lead over its nearest rival, which was Segro Busness Park Warsaw Żerań with a score of 2.92 points. Panattoni Park Gliwice came third with a score of 2.59.

MLP Pruszków yesterday...

The park was built on the former site of the Rail Rolling Stock Repair Depot [Zakłady Naprawcze Taboru Kolejowego] in Pruszków, a company that goes back to the late nineteenth century when it was set up in 1897 by the Warsaw-Vienna Rail Road Society [Towarzystwo Akcyjne Drogi Żelaznej Warszawsko-Wiedeńskiej] as the Freight Wagon Repair Depot [Warsztaty Naprawy Wagonów Towarowych]. During the interwar period, it became a thriving centre in Pruszków managed by Polish State Railways [PKP] and later after World War II, a temporary camp was placed on the site to house Warsaw’s displaced population. Now a museum is also based on the site to mark those events. In 1999 work began on constructing the first building of the MLP Pruszków I logistics park and its first tenant – TRW (which now trades under the name BCS Automotive) – moved in in 2000. The company remains a tenant of the park to this day. It was soon joined by others including Kongsberg Automotive, Electrolux, ASG, Edelmann Polska and Pro-Log. MLP itself is also headquartered there. “Since it opened, the park has become a small town with its own amenities including a store, a canteen and a great deal of greenery,” says Agnieszka Góźdź, the sales director at MLP for Poland and Romania. The park now comprises 23 buildings over a 43 ha site.

And today...

Now the park has around 50 tenants and is fully leased. “You will not find another such park in Poland. It mixes modernity with a rich history in the form of red-brick buildings that were built over a century ago. It was also once a station on the former Warsaw-Vienna railway line and still has a part of its original freight platform. This all gives the centre an amazing atmosphere that makes a great impression on everyone who visits the place,” claims Marcin Dobieszewski, the property management director at MLP.

MLP has not been resting on its laurels and continues to invest in the park. This explains why its tenants are so pleased with its recent changes, as could be seen in the survey. In recent years, the developer has installed LEDs in all the warehouses as well as emergency lighting. The company created a new entrance to the park from its Piastów side where there is a nearby bus stop. However, above all MLP has turned out to be a pioneer among developers when it comes to healthy and ecological transportation. In September 2017, an automated Veturilo bike hire point was opened in the park financed by the developer. The point operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the first 20 minutes is free allowing you to cycle free of charge around MLP Pruszków I and MLP Pruszków II, which have a combined area of over 100 hectares. It also provides a healthy and inexpensive way to get to work.

Tomasz Wojtkiewicz, the CEO of Venturilo bike point operator Nextbike Polska, points out that Pruszków is the first town in which a private sponsor has been involved in the launch of the urban bike hire system.

... and tomorrow

MLP’s plans do not stop there. The developer also wants to open the park up more to the rest of the town and is making arrangements with the local authorities of Pruszków for town buses to enter into the park. A cycle path running through the park area is also planned, which is to join a path that runs between Grodzisk Mazowiecki and the centre of Warsaw. The developer is also planning to install solar panels on the buildings and to apply for BREEAM certification. “We also intend to install highly efficient systems that use cogeneration, which is the use of heat recovery systems to be more fuel efficient when generating electricity and so we will lower our energy consumption,” says Marcin Dobieszewski. A nursery school is also planned. “There’s a great number of young parents among the employees and we want to help them,” he explains. ν

MLP Pruszków I

Launch of construction:
1999 Completion of the first building: 2000

Current warehouse space:
170,695 sqm of warehouse and production space

Number of completed buildings: 23

Size of plot: 43 ha

Anchor tenants:
Electrolux, Pro-Log, Dedra Exim, Kongsberg, Edelmann Polska

Developer: MLP Group

Manager: MLP Group