The Slovak development company KLM real estate, which has been successfully operating on the market for almost twenty years and has dozens of real-estate projects behind it, obtained a building permit and began construction of a new forwarding hall in the growing business zone of Trnava. It will serve Slovak Parcel Service (SPS) as a cross-dock workplace for fast processing of orders from online stores and redistribution of customer goods. The 1,400 m2 hall will be built on a plot of approximately 10,000 m2 near the stores of the large retail chains OBI, Mountfield, Siko, Sconto, Jysk and near the PSA car plant and the CTP industrial park. The land belonging to the hall is intended for further expansion of the dispatch office, which is part of the basic infrastructure and especially a prerequisite for the further development of online trading.
Logistics development opens up to individual investors
The pandemic has accelerated the development of e-commerce. The growth of e-shops and changes in the shopping habits of the population also benefit carriers and delivery services. The requirements for faster order processing and delivery directly to the customer, which are the result of this development, also create demand for cross-dock halls. These are the basic infrastructure of online commerce and a prerequisite for its further development.
The share of online sales in retail sales in European countries reached just over 16% in 2020. In Slovakia it was only 4.6%, but the growth rate is fast. On average, 25% per year in the last four years. This represents an interesting potential and also a unique opportunity for Slovak investors. The construction of an expedition hall in Trnava for a SPS client is an example of this. In addition, it is unique in terms of funding. For the first time in the history of Slovakia, individual investors from the Crowdberry investment platform are participating in its construction.
"When financing the project in Trnava, we reached for an innovative opportunity to finance our development activities through capital investments. We wanted to try it in the development of logistics real estate. The important thing was that it allows us to grow our portfolio and company. It has the potential for flexible financing of our projects, long-term cooperation with investors and interesting conditions. Now I can say that it has worked for us and we will continue. Through the Crowdberry platform, we have already raised capital for our other projects - a logistics hall in Nitra and a retail park in Piešťany, "says Michal Kozáček, a member of the KLM Board of Directors.
"The real estate sector remains attractive for investors due to its stability, also in times of pandemic as protection against inflation. In particular, some of its segments, including logistics. Whereas in previous periods it was a playing field exclusively for large international investors, nowadays development is also opening up to smaller, individual investors. The first case in logistics in Slovakia is the development of a distribution hall in Trnava, whose developer KLM real estate has opened up to this capital. For individual investors, the offer to enter a professionally prepared real estate, co-own it directly with the developer and participate in the developer's profit is a unique chance and basically unique in Slovakia, "says Peter Bečár from Crowdberry.
Source: // Logistické systémy
