Goodman Group will develop a bespoke 46,000-m² automotive logistics center for Seifert Logistics Group (Seifert) at Malsch, near Karlsruhe in Germany. The new facility has been pre-leased by Seifert on an initial seven-year term, with further options.
The built-to-suit facility will comprise a 36,000-m² warehouse, 1,600 m² of office space and 8,300 m² of loading and unloading zones. The total size of the site is just under 82,000 m² and includes parking spaces for 100 cars and 15 trucks. Covered delivery zones will be built with flexible loading platforms and rapid-opening/ rapid-closing loading gates to accommodate the specific requirements of the automotive logistics business. On completion, the warehouse will store vehicle parts for supply to the Mercedes-Benz production plant in Rastatt.
After considering a number of land options in the Rhine-Neckar region, Goodman selected the site of a former concrete plant in Malsch. The site is located in a well-developed industrial area and has access to the industrial rail terminal, which has the potential to be reactivated should the customer require a rail connection.
Demolition works have been completed at the site and construction of the facility has now commenced, with a scheduled completion date of May 2011. The development has an estimated completion value of 31 million. At the end of 2010 the property was pre-sold to the Goodman European Logistics Fund (GELF).
Andreas Fleischer, Country Manager for Goodman in Germany said, "Goodman is a global business run by local people, and it is our local knowledge and expertise that allowed us to win the trust of Seifert Logistics Group for this challenging project.
"The building at Malsch presented a number of particular challenges. The lack of available land in the region meant that we could not develop on a greenfield site. We designed the warehouse in such a way that it is ideally suited for automotive logistics while at the same time preserving maximum flexibility for future third-party use, and we were also able to offer Seifert flexibility in the lease agreement."
"Thanks to our proven customer offering and strong liquidity position we are able to deliver to Seifert the facility and the flexibility that they require with just eight months between our first contact and the scheduled completion of the warehouse."
From 2011 onwards, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Rastatt will produce the successor models to the A and B class cars and will also offer greater variety in its future models. This increases the need for additional production supply space which will be achieved through the delivery of the new facility at Malsch.
Harald Seifert, Managing Director at Seifert Logistics said, "We are happy, especially on the 125th anniversary of the motor car, to be laying the foundation stone for our new automotive logistics center. The warehouse in Malsch will be another important part of our automotive logistics division in this region. This builds upon our branch office in Rastatt, which we have successfully managed since the middle of 2008."
Günter Walser, Managing Director and Project Manager at the Seifert Group said, "The growing demands made by our automotive clients, means we need to develop specific value-added services within logistics as well as efficient production supply. The automotive warehouse in Malsch will help us to continue to meet these demands with a high level of service. In addition, the development is part of our group's growth strategy."
Source: Goodman
