Warburg-Backed Qube Breaks Ground on Greater Seoul Shed Project as Supply Tightens

Qube Industrial has broken ground on its first ground-up logistics development in Greater Seoul, marking a shift for the Warburg Pincus-backed platform as market conditions tighten following a wave of oversupply.

The project, called Serenade, will deliver a Grade A warehouse with 60,000 square metres (645,835 square feet) of gross floor area in the Gyeonggi provincial city of Yangju, Qube said Tuesday in a release. The five-storey dry facility will feature floor plates of 14,600 square metres and ramp access to every level, targeting institutional-grade occupiers seeking scalable space in the capital region’s northern corridor.

The project is Qube’s first fully originated development since its December 2023 launch, signalling a move beyond an acquisition-led strategy and towards a more integrated platform spanning sourcing, development and asset management. Serenade is targeting completion by late 2027 or early 2028.

“The logistics sector is increasingly bifurcated between commoditised space and assets that truly meet the operational requirements of large-scale occupiers,” said Qube co-founder and CEO James Lim. “This project reflects a selective approach to capital deployment, where entry basis, design and location are aligned to support performance through different points in the cycle.”

Debut Development

A joint venture of private equity major Warburg Pincus and South Korea’s MQ Group, Qube has assembled a portfolio of six assets totalling 400,000 square metres of gross floor area, with the Yangju project representing the platform’s first ground-up build.

Located in a submarket with limited institutional-grade supply, the Serenade site offers access to last-mile and regional distribution routes across Greater Seoul, supported by the Second Seoul Outer Ringway and a planned expressway linking Yangju to central Seoul.

Qube originated the project off-market and provided no financial details. The development comes as Greater Seoul’s logistics market moves towards a more balanced supply-demand dynamic after a sharp slowdown in new completions.

New Grade A logistics supply in Greater Seoul fell 71 percent year-on-year to just over 1 million square metres in 2025, with 278,361 square metres completed in the fourth quarter, according to CBRE. The pullback in construction, combined with the absorption of vacant space, has pushed the market towards stabilisation, with overall vacancy at 17 percent by the end of 2025.

Dry warehouse vacancy stood at 10 percent, compared with 36 percent for cold storage, highlighting a growing bifurcation between asset types and supporting Qube’s focus on dry logistics. Rents for Grade A dry assets rose 2.4 percent year-on-year in the second half of 2025, the consultancy said.

Fragmented Market

Qube’s move into development follows a series of acquisitions and disposals as the platform scaled its presence in South Korea’s logistics sector.

The company sold a pair of Greater Seoul warehouses to Blackstone in 2025, while also acquiring assets in the Gyeonggi provincial cities of Anseong and Pyeongtaek as it built out its footprint across key distribution corridors.

Those transactions formed part of a strategy to assemble and recycle assets in Korea’s fragmented logistics market, where institutional capital has been drawn by strong e-commerce demand and improving infrastructure. Warburg Pincus also develops Korean warehouses and data centres in partnership with Seoul-based Wide Creek Asset Management.

Industrial investment activity has remained robust despite earlier oversupply concerns, with logistics deals helping to drive Seoul’s total commercial real estate transaction volume to a record-high KRW 33.7 trillion ($22.4 billion) in 2025, CBRE said.

Korean deals tracked by Mingtiandi in the past four months include M&G teaming with local investors to acquire a seven-storey shed southwest of Seoul from CBRE IM for $350 million, as well as KKR’s $692 million purchase of the Cheongna logistics centre in Incheon from Brookfield.