Floor space, location and rental rates remain the key criteria when selecting a warehouse property. However, the value of a facility for a tenant is increasingly determined by a much broader set of parameters: total occupancy costs, energy efficiency, technological solutions, workplace quality and the ability to adapt the building to a changing business environment.
Rent is only one part of a property's economics. From a tenant's perspective, energy and utility costs, building maintenance and logistics are equally important. A reliable assessment of a warehouse facility therefore requires looking at its total cost of use over the entire lease period. This also changes the way technical parameters are considered: insulation and airtightness, photovoltaic installations, heat pumps and energy management systems have a direct impact on operating costs.
A good example from our practice is the combination of heat pumps and a photovoltaic installation. However, we do not treat such solutions as an end in themselves. What matters is the impact they deliver and their relevance to the building's user. In a facility of approximately 30,000 sqm, the use of heat pumps and photovoltaics can generate annual savings of around PLN 400,000 compared with a standard gas-based solution.
This is an example of a broader approach in which energy efficiency is assessed not only in terms of its environmental impact, but also the costs incurred by the tenant. Properly designed technical solutions can reduce energy consumption, lower utility costs and improve the operational efficiency of a facility throughout the lease period. From this perspective, energy efficiency is no longer merely an environmental benefit, but becomes one of the property's business parameters.
The mere presence of new technologies in a building does not in itself create value. What matters is how they are applied and what impact they have on the user. This approach underpins the work of LemonTree's FutureMinds team, whose role is to identify and test new solutions that can be implemented in our projects. The starting point is not the question of which new technology to deploy, but rather which problem it can solve and what benefits it can bring to the tenant. Only after analysing its potential impact do we test it in a specific facility. This is particularly important for properties with mixed functions. A logistics operator, manufacturing facility and R&D centre may have completely different requirements in terms of infrastructure and space organisation.
Tenants themselves are also an important source of new ideas. Their needs and expectations can provide the starting point for developing solutions that can subsequently be applied to other projects.
The same principle applies to environmental solutions. ESG is an important element of our tenants' strategies, among other things due to their own reporting obligations. At the same time, such solutions should be assessed in terms of their actual impact on the environment and on the way their businesses operate.
A practical example is our analysis of the potential use of a timber structure in one of LemonTree's developments. Initially, the solution appeared favourable in terms of its carbon footprint. However, an analysis of the building's entire life cycle led to the conclusion that it was not the optimal solution for this particular project. As a result, we ultimately opted for green steel, largely sourced from recycled material.
This approach illustrates the difference between a declarative and a practical approach to sustainable development. Not every solution described as environmentally friendly will be suitable for every project. What matters is an assessment of its actual impact on the environment, users and the economics of the property.
A warehouse is an operational space, but for some employees it is also their everyday working environment. As a result, parameters traditionally associated primarily with office buildings are becoming increasingly relevant.
Daylight, air quality, temperature, humidity, architecture and spatial organisation all affect the quality of the working environment. This is particularly relevant to the office and social facilities within warehouse and manufacturing properties, which can now offer a standard comparable to, and in some cases higher than, that of modern office buildings. For tenants, this is also an organisational and business consideration. When employee availability is limited, the quality of the workplace can support recruitment and help reduce employee turnover. Moreover, if a facility is to serve as a company's showcase, it must reflect its ambitions and present a strong architectural identity.
A broader approach can be seen in the example of the BOOSTER ZABRZE by LemonTree complex, distinguished by its unique timber façade. In addition to warehouse, manufacturing, office and service space, the project also includes an independent training centre for one of its tenants, a recreational area with a jetty next to a reservoir originally intended to serve a retention function, as well as a publicly accessible multi-purpose sports pitch and leisure area. Solutions of this kind demonstrate that a property can support a range of user needs extending beyond the basic functions of storage and manufacturing.
Assessing a location requires looking beyond the property itself. In logistics, transport time and costs are crucial, which makes direct access to major transport routes and road junctions, as well as proximity to major urban centres, highly important. In practice, this means that a more expensive warehouse in a better-connected location can be a significantly more efficient and, consequently, more cost-effective solution for a business than a facility built in what is effectively the middle of nowhere. The final decision should therefore take into account not only the cost of the space, but also the impact of the location on the tenant's entire operating model.
This is also why location selection is one of the key stages in preparing a project. At LemonTree, this involves a selective approach to the locations in which we develop our projects, taking into account their position along the ring roads of Poland's largest cities, access to developed urban infrastructure and proximity to major transport routes.
One of the greatest challenges in property development is preparing a building for needs that its current or future user may not yet know they have. The automation of logistics processes is changing the requirements placed on buildings. Mini-load systems, AutoStore, multi-level mezzanines and other automation solutions require appropriate technical parameters as well as the ability to adapt the space.
At the same time, the structure of demand for warehouse space is changing. The growth of e-commerce, the transformation of supply chains and the growing importance of the pharmaceutical, food and R&D sectors are creating demand for facilities with different functions and specifications. This makes flexibility something that should be considered as early as the design stage. This also applies to speculative developments, where the future tenant is not yet known. A versatile shell & core configuration can broaden the range of potential uses of a building and facilitate its future adaptation.
The attractiveness of a warehouse property does not end with the number of available square metres or the rental rate. For a tenant, equally important considerations include the total cost of use, how the property supports its business, the conditions it provides for employees and whether it will enable the business to grow in the future without having to relocate to another facility. The quality of a property should therefore be considered as a combination of several elements: location, cost efficiency, technology, technical parameters, architecture, user comfort, automation potential and flexibility. Such a property becomes not only a place where business is conducted, but also an element of its long-term competitive advantage.