by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Blackstone has acquired an € 8 bln portfolio of warehouses and dark kitchens in Europe. The world’s biggest real estate investor bets that e-commerce and delivery services will play an increasingly big role in Europe. The private equity group created a separate company, Mileway, to hold the properties in a move seen as a precursor to …
The growth of e-commerce has increased demand for warehouse space, but one real estate sector is really heating up. Cold storage distribution centers are in high demand thanks to new food delivery services. The sector is still small now, but growing rapidly.
In countries like the UK and the US, retail space is now increasingly being used to accommodate showrooms for online retailers. In their quest for wider audiences, retailers are joining forces with logistics providers to incorporate online sales into their business models.
The acceleration of economic globalization and integration has led to more logistics activities worldwide and changes in the spatial location of logistics facilities. The location of logistics facilities affects not only cost and efficiency of cargo transportation activities but also sustainability of logistics.
The Urban Logistics report by Cushman & Wakefield reveals a huge increase in city logistics property space is required across key centres across Europe in the next four years to meet the exponential growth of e-commerce and the resultant need for last mile delivery in cities.
Over recent years there’s been increasing interest in city or urban logistics among urban planners, developers and investors. It’s a subject which has also risen up city, national and European policy agendas. This mutual interest has been spurred by the growth of e-commerce and online retail and the burgeoning demand for last-mile fulfilment facilities being …