Industrial and logistics project developer Panattoni has started the construction of another project in Germany for Amazon Logistics, the logistics branch of international online retailer Amazon, as the German government continues to greenlight building work.
The new distribution centre will be built at Jade-Weser-Park, an inter-municipal industrial estate in Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony, situated in direct proximity to JadeWeserPort.
While thousands of construction sites across Europe have been closed by the coronavirus crisis, building work has not yet been halted in Germany. Last week, the German government renewed a pledge that construction should continue despite the crisis, in a decree announced by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Construction and Home Affairs (BMI) and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI).
Andreas Scheuer, the minister for transport and digital infrastructure, underlined the necessity to continue with development, saying that it would support a rapid economic recovery when the crisis is over.
The new logistics centre project is the fifth collaboration between Panattoni and Amazon in Germany. After Amazon moved into a speculative development in Düsseldorf, Panattoni has been working to realise three built-to-suit projects (BTS) for Amazon in Magdeburg, Kaltenkirchen and Knüllwald, near Kassel.
The latest scheme, which Panattoni told PropertyEU was signed in January, comprises 6,895 m2 of logistics space and 1,422 m2 of office space and social areas on the 63,786 m2 site. It will be used to process last-mile logistics for B2C shipments, according to Amazon. Recent research suggests that the exponential growth of e-commerce is one of the few success stories to emerge from the current pandemic and may prove habit-forming once the crisis has passed.
'We are thrilled with the project at Jade-Weser-Park. Wilhelmshaven not only has Germany’s only deepwater port in the form of JadeWeserPort, it also has a robust economy spanning all sectors. Amazon’s decision to settle here and create new jobs is a further boost to the local economy,' said Fred-Markus Bohne, managing partner of Panattoni.
The distribution centre is set to be completed in early 2021. CBRE acted as mediating broker in the transaction. The Administrative District of Friesland was also involved as the vendor of the plot of land.
Panattoni currently has 1.8 million m2 of projects under construction across Europe at the moment, which the firm said were 'going according to plan'.
