location and cost – these are what count most for companies leasing space in warehouse, industrial and logistics parks. According to tenants, Panattoni Park Mysłowice offers the best combination of both these factors

Emil Górecki

In our survey of warehouse tenants, as many as 71 pct of the respondents chose location as one of three most important criteria for a logistics park, while 70 pct considered the rent and other costs to be the main factors. These are the criteria which influenced most the assessment of each of the nominated projects. The facility manager turned out to be of relatively lower importance, as only 10 pct of those surveyed included it in the three most important criteria.
No surprises
What did the survey reveal? The best Polish warehouse park turned out to be Panattoni Park Mysłowice. This is one of the biggest distribution centres in Poland, with a total area of app. 125,000 sqm and which is eventually to grow to 180,000 sqm. The park consists of five buildings which are fully leased, as is the planned sixth hall. The first of these was built in 2007, followed by the others in 2008 and 2009. The built-to-suit facilities are currently used by companies such as Coca-Cola, CAT Group, DPD, Inter Cars, Intermarché, Manuli Hydraulics,  ND Logistics, Magneti Marelli, Outokumpu, PartnerTech and Röhlig. “Panattoni Park Mysłowice is one of the best located facilities in our portfolio and, in my opinion, in Poland,” boasts Panattoni Europe’s managing partner for Central Europe Robert Dobrzycki. Panattoni developed the facility and, with the Pramerica Real Estate Investors fund, is its co-owner.
The second and the third positions on the podium of winners were taken by MLP Tychy (developed by MLP) and Ożarów Business Center (which belongs to Orco Endurance Fund).
Panattoni Park Mysłowice received top marks for accessibility by car and public transport and for the quality of the offices, the efficiency of the layout and its flexibility for adapting the space, and for cooperation with the management. The tenants are also most satisfied with the rent-to-product quality ratio and the transparency of service charge calculations. Robert Dobrzycki declares that he is not at all surprised at winning the award. “The positive opinion of our clients was definitely influenced by the location, which is right next to the S1 road, as well as the infrastructure around the park. For the specific needs of the facility we have also built an interchange to connect it with a main road. I think that the fact that Panattoni has its own office in the facility is not without importance. A five-person team is currently supervising the operations of the park and is at the immediate disposal of the clients, all of which has been reflected in the survey,” he claims.
One bad appleÉ
However, some tenants do have a number of issues with the space they lease. Some of the chief reservations of the tenants of all the warehouses surveyed included insufficient numbers of parking spaces, management’s slow reaction time and the lack of possibilities for increasing or decreasing the leased space according to changing needs. And what were the weakest points of Panattoni Park Mysłowice? Parking for lorries (which received 3 points, with the average amounting to 2.02), the accessibility and quality of the local labour force  (3.33, with an average of 3.19), car parks for guests and employees (3.33, with an average of 2.51), manoeuvring conditions for lorries  (3.33, with an average of 2.79), security and safety (3.33 – third place in the ranking – with an average of 2.13) and the rent-to-quality ratio of the leased space (3.33, with an average of 1.68). As can be seen none of the marks awarded to this facility fell below the average for all those in the survey. Furthermore, only two out of the six lowest results for Panattoni Park Mysłowice were considered significant issues. “Two months ago  I would not have had any doubts that this is the best warehouse park in Poland. However, since October 2010 we have started to have some problems,” reveals Dariusz Kierski, logistics director for Poland of Intermarché. The company has leased a hall with an area of 28,500 sqm for one and a half years, including 7,600 sqm of cold storage. “The refrigerating units failed for a few days, we have had  a power cut and problems with the heating in the last two months. The reaction of the facility manager was entirely appropriate, but such failures should not take place. Our losses amount to  app. PLN 1 mln. I hope that this will be the last we see of such incidents,” says Mr Kierski.
The park is located along the S1 expressway, 2 km from an interchange connecting the A4, E40 and S1 roads. The survey of warehouse tenants was carried out in August and September 2010, involving a questionnaire consisting of 19 questions. Panattoni Park Mysłowice beat off 18 competitors to win the award. “For us it is the pearl in our portfolio, and this is partly due to its size – it is our biggest park in Poland – and the variety of companies leasing space there. There have been a number of examples so far that demonstrate the facility’s flexibility when it comes to adapting the structure and technical specifications of the buildings for the requirements of the tenants. For example, we developed a built-to-suit facility with a cold store for Intermarché, for DPD we have built a warehouse designed for courier services with docks on three sides, as well as preparing a production area for PartnerTech. This is already the fourth award won by this park, but at the same time it is the most important one, because it has been chosen by the tenants themselves,” asserts  Robert Dobrzycki.