Urban Supply Chain: Retail & Logistics Product Council

Urban Supply Chain Product Council covered challenges, trends and outlook for the logistics and retail sectors. The group discussion was “kicked off” by two presentations, respectively by Jacek Wesołowski of TREI Real Estate, the retail park developer, and Łukasz Jachna of 7R SA, Poland’s 2^nd largest logistics developer and a recently new member of ULI.

Many interesting points were added by the representatives of Colliers, MDDP, Skanska, Greenberg Traurig and Miller Canfield. We were joined by 3 Swedish ULI members from NREP which provided an interesting and interactive discussion on Polish trends vs standards in the Nordics.

Key take-aways from the discussions that engaged participants in the room were the adjustment to a “new reality” for retail and consumer behavior somehow creating an even closer link between tradition retail, eCommerce and last-mile distribution. Food-anchored retail parks in smaller cities or in outskirts of larger cities have started to drive new growth in the retail sector, whereas logistics in Poland continues to thrive on strong occupier demand as well as yield compression. Common challenges for both sectors include availability of land, increasing construction costs as well as access to key talent to drive growth.

Looking ahead, in Poland, major trends such as ESG, PropTech, Data Center Strategies, and Automation supported by AI will shape real estate and real estate businesses to catch up with more mature markets in Europe, which is expected to happen fast due to occupier and consumer behaviours.

A very special THANK YOU to Cushman & Wakefield who provided lunch and hosted the Supply Chain Product Council and ULI Poland Executive Committee Members: Soren Rodian Olsen of Cushman & Wakefield and Agata Jurek-Zdrojska of Greenberg Traurig.

Urban Living Product Council

Urban Living Product Council concentrated on opportunities and challenges of the PRS investments.

Insightful presentations given by Prof. Dr. Thomas Beyerle from Catella Property Consultants GmbH and Margarethe van der Vorm and Rene M. Voortmeijer from Van der Vorm Vastgoed were a great beginning for vibrant discussion and endless questions to the speakers. We were joined by the representatives of Eiffage Immobilier, Zeitgeist Asset Management, Echo Investment, Vastint, Vantage, Yareal, JLL and Colliers.

Poland is considered a good destination to invest because of the growing urban population, young, English speaking and highly educated society. However, the guests mentioned many uncertain areas, including taxes and unpredictability of the pandemic. In summary, trends look optimistic, and the Polish market is looking for implementing this type of investments in a broader scale.

After the meeting, we visited Elektrownia Powiśle and its PRS project – big thank you to White Star and Michael Gifford from APA Wojciechowski for a great site tour and detailed insights about the project.

A very special THANK YOU to DWF Poland who provided lunch and hosted the Urban Living Product Council and ULI Poland Executive Committee Members: Joanna Wojnarowska of DWF Poland and Konrad Plochocki of PZFD (Polish Association of Developers).

Site Tour of Varso Tower

The last point of Product Council Days agenda was a presentation of Varso Place and a site tour of Varso Tower.

Varso Place – three buildings, one exceptional destination. The three buildings are home to offices, a hotel, an innovation centre, restaurants, coffee shops and convenient services, as well as the highest observation deck in Poland.

Varso Tower was designed by the renowned studio Foster + Partners, and at the moment is the tallest building in the European Union. Topped with a spire, the structure now stands at 310 metres tall. We visited the top deck that will be open to the public on 53 level at 230 meters.

Special thanks to HB Reavis for hosting us, our tour guide Marcin Chruśliński, Development Manager at HB Reavis for great stories and Marcin Klammer, ULI Poland Executive Committee Member and Country CEO of HB Reavis.