LaSalle Investment Management has beefed up its portfolio with the on-time completion of three multi-level logistics facilities in Shanghai and the surrounding area.
The new Grade A facilities, totalling 194,000 square metres (2.1 million square feet) of logistics space — 73 percent of which is pre-leased — are set to meet demand for high-specification logistics centres in the Shanghai region, LaSalle said in a release.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of efficient distribution,” said Mark Gabbay, the firm’s CEO for Asia Pacific. “As China leads the economic recovery in Asia Pacific into 2021 and beyond, LaSalle Logiport is giving high-calibre multinationals access to Grade A logistics facilities that support their ongoing growth.”
The high-spec sheds are part of a roll-out of five logistics facilities in China announced nearly a year and a half ago by LaSalle, and come online as an increase in e-commerce adoption is boosting interest in warehouse space in one of China’s most prosperous economic corridors.
Ramping Up Around Shanghai
“The timely completion and successful leasing of these well-located facilities highlight our ability to execute and deliver on China logistics investment opportunities,” Gabbay added, with one of the properties situated within Shanghai’s city limits and the other two completed in nearby cities.
LaSalle Logiport Shanghai Qingpu is a 47,000 square metre logistics facility in the Qingpu Industrial Zone. Located 50 kilometres west of Shanghai’s central business district, Qingpu straddles key regional transport routes and connects the city to the rest of the Yangtze River Delta economic hub. The two-storey, double-ramped Logiport facility has been fully pre-leased to a leading global integrated express courier and logistics operator.
Slightly further west, LaSalle has opened Logiport Suzhou, a 51,000 square metre two-storey property which was completed at the end of September. The dual-ramp facility is located close to the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu province, about 90 kilometres from Shanghai’s CBD. Eighty-two percent of the property in the Wangting International Logistics Park has been pre-leased to a major retailer and e-commerce leader in China.
LaSalle’s third addition to its Shanghai area portfolio is LaSalle Logiport Jiaxing, a two-storey double-ramped logistics facility in the city of Jiaxing, in Zhejiang province. Located 90 kilometres from Shanghai in the Pinghu Logistics Park at Dushan Port, the property serves both traffic within the Yangtze River Delta and international maritime transport.
Completed at the end of September, the Jiaxing facility has a total floor area of 96,000 square metres, and 54 percent of that space has been pre-committed to one of China’s largest e-commerce logistics companies.
E-Commerce Drives China Logistics
With e-commerce tenants helping to fill two of LaSalle’s three new eastern China sheds, the fund manager is rolling out its new facilities as online shopping continues to drive demand for logistics on the mainland.
A survey conducted by JD.com and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing showed that an index of e-commerce logistics activity rose to a 2020 high of 110.4 points last month, with a recent report showing an upswing in leasing activity during the period from July through September.
Net absorption of Shanghai-area logistics space reached 197,010 square metres in the third quarter — the highest level of take-up since the second quarter of 2018 — according to JLL. That leasing surge came after net absorption contracted during the second quarter.
The three properties are new additions to the LaSalle Asia Opportunity Fund series, which invests in diversified real estate with a value-add investment strategy.
LaSalle Investment Management, an independent subsidiary of JLL, has long experience in China logistics, completing more than $2.1 billion worth of transactions since 2008. LaSalle manages more than $4 billion in logistics investments across key markets in Asia, including China, Japan and Korea.
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