WROCLAW, Poland, Nov. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Goodman, the global property group that owns, develops and manages logistics space, will develop a fulfilment centre in Wroclaw for Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce provider. The new development will be the largest free standing logistics facility in Poland, and will be built in record time to meet Amazon's requirements. The transaction represents the biggest contract for a logistics warehouse in central Europe to date.
The development of Amazon's first fulfilment centre in Poland will have a footprint of approx. 95,000 sqm. Construction of the facility commenced in October 2013 and it is planned that the fulfilment centre will be fully operational in the second half of 2014.
"We are proud that Amazon chose to enter the Polish market in partnership with Goodman. The facility we are developing will be the largest free standing logistics property in Poland. Construction will be rapid, to allow Amazon to make full use of the warehouse's logistics capabilities in under a year," said Blazej Ciesielczak, Regional Director Goodman Poland.
"We have decided to partner with Goodman in Poland due to the firm's extensive experience in building similar warehouse facilities for Amazon in Western Europe and its knowledge of the local logistics market, based on numerous projects completed in Poland," said Raimund Paetzmann, Director Real Estate of Amazon.
A key factor in Amazon's decision to choose Goodman as the developer was its ability to deliver such a large facility in a relatively short time frame, while simultaneously ensuring a high quality finished product.
Amazon plans to create up to 2,000 long-term jobs at the warehouse, plus an additional 3,000 seasonal jobs in order to cover peak times during the holiday season.
Since 2006, Goodman has completed over 900,000 sqm for Amazon across 11 developments in Germany, France and the UK.
Amazon's new distribution centre will be located in Wroclaw's Bielany Wroclawskie suburb 5km from the city centre. The location boasts comprehensive transport links, spanning road (A8 and A4 motorways, together with S8 and S5 express roads), rail (10km to Wroclaw's central railway station) and air (15km to Wroclaw Airport). The distribution centre for Amazon will be Goodman's fifth development project in the Wroclaw area. Previous facilities, totalling over 70,000 sqm, have been constructed for Whirlpool, TJX Europe, Walki Group and Casetech.
Goodman is number one European developer
PropertyEU magazine has named Goodman as the number one developer in Europe for the second year in a row. The ranking, which appears in the March edition, is based on completed projects in sqm from 2010 to 2012.
