Accolade celebrates another successful year in Poland. The value of investments in Poland has gone up 120% to exceeded CZK 10 billion
Three years ago, Accolade turned its first finished halls over to their tenants in the neighbouring Poland, and since then it has managed to build nine new projects whose value climbed up to CZK 10.5 billion (Q1 2019). Compared with 2017, this is more than a five-fold increase. The whole Accolade-owned portfolio of industrial complexes thus increased to 536 000m2, with an annual rental income of CZK 0.75 billion.
The Accolade strategy for our northern neighbours has been quite clear since the group entered the market: turn less developed cities of the approximate size of Brno - such as Szczecin, Lublin or Bydgoszcz - which have the advantage of a strategic location, into large industrial centres. Szczecin, which lies near the German border, is a typical example: the former Messerschmitt factory has been redeveloped into fully equipped buildings for light manufacturing, logistics and e-commerce.
“We decided to venture out where many a big player did not dare to go, and we reaped the rewards. We turned strategically positioned cities that had been overlooked by investors into industrial hubs which – thanks to their good location, quality infrastructure and our projects – attract companies of global importance and scale. No wonder that such names like Amazon and Zalando eventually followed us into these locations,” explains Milan Kratina, CEO Accolade.
Three new parks were added to the Polish portfolio in 2018: Bialystok in the north-east of Poland close to the border with Belarus, Lithuania and Kaliningrad; Kielce in the south-east, half way between Krakow and Warsaw; and, finally, Konin in the central part of the country.
“Bialystok and Kielce, specifically, were the first projects of their kind in their respective regions. They offered modern and flexible rental space for light manufacturing, which attracted the interest from players like Pilkington or Vive, which signed ten-year lease contracts,” adds Lukáš Répal, Director Polska.
The proximity of Germany, ports connecting the Scandinavian countries, the Baltic Sea, or the connection to the main transport routes generated demand from highly viable tenants. The largest of these is the logistic giant DHL, which will, after expansion, rent over 50,000 m2 of space, or Pierce, the largest online motorcycle equipment retailer, which rents over 40,000 m2 from Accolade. Autodoc, reseller of automotive spare parts for cars, is another new tenant.
“Best-in-class equipment and facilities, BREEAM certification which is a guarantee of compliance with sustainability standards, very good conditions for workers and high energy efficiency of buildings are all come with the territory. Our partners also benefit from things like Special Economic Zone status which, among other things, exempts tenants from property taxes,” concludes Répal.