Brownfields are a ‘fantastic opportunity’ for logistics: CTP
Cost pressures are leading industrial companies to leave Western Europe, creating opportunities for logistics groups to take over sites in good locations, Bert Hesselink, group client relationships director, CTP, told Real Asset Insight.
“Cost optimisation is becoming more of a priority and some companies, like automotive industries, are reviewing their footprint,” he said. “There was already a shift underway to CEE, but now it is speeding up, so some great production sites in Western Europe are becoming redundant. These brownfields are a fantastic opportunity for us.”
CTP, Europe’s largest listed developer and operator of industrial, logistics and high-tech business parks, recently acquired a brownfield site near Stuttgart, where it is developing a mixed-use sustainable business park.
The deindustrialisation process underway in some European countries, notably Germany, can provide opportunities for logistics as companies are forced to become more competitive and more innovative.
“Germany is the sick man of Europe but it will get better and stronger,” he said. “In the meantime, we get the chance to transform derelict industrial areas and bring new life into them.”
The opportunities are actually double for CTP, he added, as “we can also develop new sites in CEE for these companies that are leaving Germany.”
As German companies move elsewhere, international players are looking at Germany. Location selection is becoming even more crucial for all companies, which increasingly choose to be closer to their customers.
“We are developing a 22,000 sq m high-tech production facility for a Taiwanese company in Germany, close to the border with the Netherlands,” Hesselink said. “They looked at many different places but in the end they chose proximity to their customers. There are many examples like this, there’s a lot of movement in the market. It’s important to be in the right location.”
Construction of the new facility at CTPark Jülich in northwest Germany is underway and Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese company that manufactures computers and electronic hardware, is set to start operations there in H2 next year.
“It is yet another physical proof of the transformation underway,” said Hesselink. “We buy a site and companies start calling us before we market it. That’s why I am so optimistic about prospects for our sector.”