Prologis, the world's largest developer of logistics real estate, has opened its own office in Antwerp.
This is how the US company aims to attack the Belgian market after two major acquisitions.
US real estate group Prologis is nurturing substantial expansion plans in Belgium. The major developer and investor in logistics real estate opened its own office in the Antwerp BP building earlier this year.
Prologis is the global number one in logistics real estate. The company owned 5,500 buildings at the end of last year, accounting for an area of 113 million m². The listed company has $195 billion of real estate under management.
Prologis has been trying to gain a foothold in Belgium for some time. In recent years, it did two major deals in our country. In 2020, Prologis bought six projects from AG Real Estate in Beersel, Milmort, Oudsbergen and Kontich. Last year, Prologis gained another five complexes in Belgium, the result of acquiring a €1.6 billion European property portfolio from British logistics platform Crossbay.
Meanwhile, Prologis owns 28 projects in Belgium, accounting for over 600,000 sqm. Here it is a third smaller than its listed rival WDP. Major customers of Prologis in Belgium include shoe brand Skechers, clothing chain C&A and carmaker Toyota.
Gateway
By opening its own office, Prologis hopes to expand faster in Belgium and better serve its customers, who operate all over the world. 'Belgium is an important gateway,' says Jessica Pilkes, country manager for Benelux. 'We see serious opportunities to expand our market share here, not only through new construction, but also by redeveloping brownfields.' Prologis is mainly looking at the port of Antwerp, Zaventem and around Brussels.
In Belgium, Prologis not only faces stiff competition from players like WDP and Montea, but also a shortage of land. 'The trend is that available land is scarce,' Pilkes acknowledges. 'In the Netherlands, there is also discussion about the 'big boxes' being built everywhere for e-commerce.' The slowdown in the (logistics) property market due to the rapid interest rate increases is not slowing Prologis down. 'The market is not standing still at all,' Pilkes stressed. 'We are still being offered projects.'
Remarkably, Prologis is 'speculatively' building a 50,000 m² logistics complex in Boom. But due to the shortage of warehouses, it expects to find a tenant for it easily. 'We recently did the same twice in the Netherlands and found a tenant even before completion,' says Pilkes. 'There is demand in the market.'
Read the article written by Lukas Vanacker here.