Partner for the SME sector – Garbe Industrial Real Estate

In 2011 the total leasing volume of Hamburg’s logistics properties developer was 330,000 square meters. This corresponds to a market share of 5.7 percent across Germany.

With the full occupancy of properties that are managed by Garbe Industrial Real Estate on the horizon, the already booming project development business will continue to grow in importance, because in a market environment that is generally characterized by a high demand for modern logistics spaces, available vacant space with current building standards are a rarity.

This positive market assessment is also shared by the experts at Jones Lang LaSalle, which predicts stable development in the market for warehouse and logistics spaces in Germany for the remainder of the year. A letting turnover is expected here, that will remain above the four-million-square-meter mark and therefore at the five-year average level by the end of 2012.

In recent times, one obstacle to development was often the fact that investors are looking for very long leases without sufficient consideration of other property characteristics, while tenants – mostly contract logistics providers – can only sign medium-duration contracts because of the contracts they hold with their clients; they don’t want to sign long-term leases. Our response to this changing demand is the IVG Garbe Logistik Fonds, which we set up together with IVG Institutional Funds GmbH.

THIS FUND BUYS PROPERTIES THAT ARE HIGHLY SUITABLE FOR THIRD PARTY USE, IN PRIME LOCATIONS AND WITH AVERAGE MATURITIES.

“This opens up another interesting market possibility for our Development Fund,” explains Markus Kessler. “This allows for an even earlier and more predictable sale of a development and also makes the rental offer even more attractive. Our offer already has a high level of relevance for SMEs wishing to invest their capital in more personnel or equipment. Now we present an even more interesting proposition,” said Kessler.

Jan Dietrich Hempel adds: “Group companies are also included among our clients, but “hidden champions” can be found just below the level of our medium-sized customers, with whom we maintain a very close dialogue in order to develop an optimum product for tenants and investors. These tenants are very innovative; they constantly improve their services and extend their leases much more frequently than others.”

The repacking plant for mineral water bottles is at the heart of logistics warehouses in the Port of Duisburg.

OUTSOURCING CREATES ADVANTAGES

Since Garbe Industrial Real Estate takes care of planning, financing and development of the real estate, the SME has more financial flexibility, which it can use for its original business. This also holds true for Reiner Bohnen Internationale Spedition GmbH & Co. KG. Garbe Industrial Real Estate financed and built a logistics center on the logport area in the Port of Duisburg for this transport and logistics service provider headquartered in Niederkrüchten- Elmpt, Kreis Viersen. This is where the family-run business handles beverage logistics for a well-known food company. “We invested about seven million euros of our own funds into the logistic systems,” says CEO Jürgen Bohnen.

The heart of the beverage logistics was the development of a new repackaging plant for mineral water bottles. Because the bottles, which are delivered as six-packs on pallets by rail, have to be repackaged in reusable containers in the Duisburg logistics hall for national distribution. Removing the foil packaging from the six-packs and the subsequent loading of already washed reusable crates with bottles is an automated process. This may sound simple but it is a technically complicated and extremely challenging task. The use of this equipment is a great advantage for operations – it means that the six-packs can be transferred to reusable crates about ten times faster.

Garbe Industrial Real Estate offers even more advantages to SMEs besides greater financial flexibility: “We can respond to the needs of medium-sized companies more readily than large developers,” says Markus Kessler. “We often develop creative solutions together – and this is facilitated by flat hierarchies and direct communication channels – Keyword: one contact person.” And in the process, both the tenant’s wishes for the property and the logistics real estate developer’s requirements for later usability by a third party are taken into account.

DEMAND FOR WAREHOUSE SPACE IS INCREASING

Whether we’re talking about logistics corporations or medium-sized enterprises – the demand for logistics and warehouse spaces in prime locations in Germany will continue to increase over the long run. The demand for modern logistics space will continue to be driven by the wishes of service providers to better exploit the technical possibilities of the latest generations of shelving and stacking systems in the warehouse. This leads to greater demand for logistics spaces that at the least have a greater ceiling height and floor load capacity. Jan Dietrich Hempel: “However, these buildings are not sufficiently available at present; they either have to be re-designed or they are yet to be built.”