«From my previous experience I can say that we have grown to a normal warehouse for a long time. When Italian co-investors came to us earlier, we didn’t always want to take them there, because it used to be a semi-Soviet dilapidated building.»
«Port», one of the largest logistics centers in Western Ukraine, will be opened in the village of Pasyky-Zubrytskyi near Lviv. The total area will cover 8.08 hectares. The facility is planned to be fully commissioned by the end of next year.
According to the plan, construction will be carried out in phases, and the first one should be handed over in the fourth quarter of this year.
«At first, some people were in doubt about the project, but I wasn’t wrong, and we were approached by a very serious company. Here 42,000 square meters of warehouse, administrative, and commercial space is being built and about a thousand new jobs [will be created]. For our community, it will bring budget revenue from taxes. In addition, we plan to create a recreation area with a lake and a large lighthouse», – said Volodymyr Kernytskyi, head of the Davydovska OTH («separate territorial community» – a reformed administrative unit in Ukraine).
Dmytro Kovalchuk, the founder of «Alterra Group» and co-investor of the «Port» logistics center, says that they worked a lot with warehouse real estate all over Ukraine, though it was built 40-50 years ago.
«The supply of warehouses and industrial premises is constantly declining. As a result, the vacancy rate of warehouse industrial real estate in Ukraine has been less than 5% over the last three years. This leads to the fact that a business which doesn’t want to work in such conditions does not have the supply and infrastructure to develop itself», – says Dmytro Kovalchuk.
According to him, the solution for businessmen is simply to buy plots and start building there with their own effort, but if they are not professionals in construction, it can negatively affect the business itself.
«Looking at this situation, we came up with an idea we nurtured for about five years. We wanted to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, so we looked at foreign projects, including the experience of the United States and China, and found that warehousing and industrial real estate is moving to the complexity and availability of infrastructure», – he added.
The co-owners took the business model of selling the residential real estate and simply imposed it on their logistics center. As a result, they created a sales department, where you can come and buy premises in the complex, with an area 365 meters and more.
The special places for smoking, rest, food, and staff work, as well as showers will be arranged.
The logistics center will have its own management company, which will resolve all issues that may arise on the spot.
«When you work in a place where there is an office, a warehouse, and a showroom, you can host guests, invite foreign investors not only to the office but also to the warehouse. Because from my previous experience, I can say that we have grown to a normal warehouse for a long time. When Italian co-investors came to us earlier, we didn’t always want to take them there, because it used to be a semi-Soviet dilapidated building», – said Roman Horodechnyi, co-founder of «Regno» and co-investor at the «Port» logistics center.
According to him, the management company will be open and will have a profit margin of 20%, that is, it won’t be able to earn more on the services it provides. In addition, the founders are creating the club of captains – a community of owners and users of the premises, which will be pivotal at holding events, discussions and solutions to issues of importance to the people who will work here.
«More than a thousand jobs are just those jobs that will be created directly at this location. Each job potentially creates another one, because the person who earns the money later spends it somewhere. About 500 people are currently working at the site alone. In addition, we registered the Port company in Davydivska OTH, so we will pay local taxes here», – Roman Horodechny stressed.
The head of the Lviv regional administration Maksym Kozytskyi says that such companies, that are not afraid and boldly develop the economy, are crucial to the fact that communities will get more jobs, and everyone will be able to take advantage of such a business project.
Investors are negotiating with several large foreign companies, and memoranda have already been signed with national companies that are interested in entering the facility.
Additional information
«Alterra Group» has been operating in the Ukrainian real estate market since 2016. Its main activity is the management of commercial real estate. The company’s portfolio includes 36 real estate, 420 tenants and more than 137,500 square meters in management. The company has offices in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv and Melitopol. In 2019, Alterra Group launched development as a new area of its activity. The most successful project was the renovation of a large old warehouse in one of the central districts of Kyiv, on the site of which the company built a business center for IT.
«Regno» is an importing company founded in 2014 with the aim of making quality European products available to Ukrainian consumers. The company imports and distributes alcoholic beverages, cheeses, dairy products and delicacies from more than 10 countries. The company has branches in Kharkiv, Odesa, and Kyiv, and is headquartered in Lviv.
Sofia Shavranska
Translated by Vitalii Holich
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