Another important segment of development is industrial and logistics centres. It is known that the demand for these properties is still high and developers often fail to supply enough square metres of these areas. What is your view?
I think that this segment also has prospects and will continue to develop. Of course, today there are some concerns that with the changes that are taking place in the automotive industry, the position of the logistics and industrial segment will be threatened. However, I do not share these concerns. There will certainly be many new opportunities. Of course, the key constraint, or if you like, the obstacle to development, is the availability of labour. I believe that this problem will diminish as automation and the involvement of artificial intelligence progress. We can see this today in the US or in Western Europe, where these centres are increasing, while the demand for labour is decreasing. Another significant limiting factor is the general lack of ready industrial zones and the reluctance of municipalities and the population to accept new industrial and logistics buildings on their territory. It is obvious that the state has overslept in preparing industrial areas and private investors and developers are reluctant to build new logistics or industrial areas in the cadastre of municipalities. Even if these would bring jobs and investment that would boost the area.
But let’s be optimistic, some new complexes will surely be built. If we stop at current trends such as the automation and robotics just mentioned, how do they translate into the requirements for designing new industrial halls?
Significantly. There have been a lot of demands recently. As society keeps a close eye on industrial and logistics buildings, it is placing more and more demands on them in terms of environmental protection, sustainability and the quality of life in their surroundings. Naturally, these requirements must be reflected in the design process, and we want to push the quality of this construction to a higher level. We see that these sectors, which we cannot do without as a human society, are among the main consumers of energy. And that is a fact that we have to perceive and work with. It starts at the concept stage of a project. For example, when designing logistics facilities, we need to think about how to reduce unnecessary mileage, not to create unnecessary queuing of trucks, etc. The first priority is therefore the appropriate location of the project, its concept and the traffic solution. Sometimes people do not realise that this is also part of environmental measures. Another aspect for logistics and industrial sites should be to try to reduce the huge paved areas that are created. This is not perceived optimally by the public, and we at Obermeyer Helika always say in every project that we need to increase the green space. It is a wonder why some industrial sites have only halls, then paved areas and nothing else. The trend should be to plant trees, create ponds and green belts. Areas should be separated from villages and smaller towns by roads. There used to be a sort of trend of visibility of these campuses, but that is a long outdated concept because, as we can see, that very visibility can be rather detrimental to the local community.
Energy solutions are also a big issue for these facilities. There are major consumers of electricity here, so the energy supply is very important, both economically and environmentally.
No doubt. In this context, I would definitely single out solar energy. Industrial and logistics sites in particular are absolutely ideal for it. They have a huge proportion of roof space and this ‚lost area‘ can be fully utilised. This is something that we support as much as possible in our company and consider an absolute necessity for the future. With a large photovoltaic installation, an industrial site can ultimately make a positive contribution to the energy balance of the surrounding villages or an entire larger site.
Speaking of this solar solution, what do you think about the idea of so-called carports, since we already have paved areas such as parking lots?
Carports are a significant opportunity in all large car parks here too, although they originated further south where they are still much more common. I’m a fan of them because it’s another potential to put solar panels in places that would otherwise have no use. For me, it’s definitely a smart solution. To mention other environmental aspects, I would like to add that rainwater management is important for industrial and logistics sites. This is something that has been neglected in the past and that environmentalists have rightly criticised these sites for. The collection of grey water and its reuse, whether for irrigation, for staff toilets or even for industrial use, will also become a necessity in the future. We at Obermeyer Helika also strongly support this direction.
Can you introduce some interesting projects in this area that Obermeyer Helika has been involved in?
We work with the best in the industry. We have cooperated and are still cooperating a lot with the development company CTP, where I would like to mention in particular the Brno construction project on the site of the former ZETOR Brno factory. Here we are involved in the design of halls, whether logistics or light manufacturing. We also cooperate with VGP, which is also one of the leaders in the field. These are companies with whom it is beneficial for us to talk about the ecological aspects of this construction, because they are very much in favour of it and directly demand it from us.
So what is in store for us in the near future? Will we manage the difficulties with the placement of buildings and achieve the desired development in this segment?
I would like it very much, but at the moment I am rather pessimistic. I don’t think the situation will change quickly and radically. We can see this in a case we have recently experienced. We worked with Daimler on their central warehouse project for Central Europe. After previous experience, Daimler was preparing this project in parallel in the Czech Republic and Germany. In the end, they decided to build in Germany. This was despite the fact that it was not economically viable for them. The reason for this was the time limits for the planning permission and the building permit. In the Czech Republic, this is such an opaque and lengthy process that we are no longer an interesting partner for many investors. This is really worrying for us, it makes life difficult for us and it brings great damage to the economy of the Czech Republic.
