REGION

Aleš Zacha, Head of Development at P3 in Czechia

Aleš Zacha began his professional career with a Master’s degree in Economics as a tax advisor at the company Deloitte.

After a couple years, and a career break, he decided to completely switch fields and oriented himself in commercial real

estate. From 2013, he gained experience as an agent for CBRE and later as a manager at Panattoni. He entered P3 in June

of 2020 as a Senior Leasing and Development Manager and, since December 2021, he has stood at the head of the P3

Czech Republic Development division.

What is the current state of land

development at a time when entry points

are becoming more expensive and many

companies have unclear futures?

The demand for industrial premises has

been at a record high since the pandemic.

Some of my colleagues were finishing

around 1.5 contracts a week on average

last year, a pace they are maintaining well

into this year.

New construction projects are also

holding strong, even though some

materials have jumped up in price and

construction is experiencing an employee

shortage. Some of the industrial halls we

build are more speculative, but others

are constructed on a build-to-suit lease,

meaning that work on them begins only

after we find a tenant to whom we adapt

the space.

P3 Ostrava Central is your first

brownfield project. What is your

assessment of this premiere from

a development perspective?

It is a great location within the city where

free plots of land are hard to come by.

The pre-existing infrastructure is, of

course, a great advantage, not to mention

the fact that the area was used for industry

in the past and will now be used for it

again, just in a much more modern form.

This new industrial-business district will

also be open to everyone. In comparison

to what the area contained thus far,

our project will offer a significant

improvement,

including

almost

120,000m2 of new greenery.

Over the past couple years, Ostrava has

seen a surge in high quality developer

projects. Does the local market,

therefore, still have room for you?

The competition in Ostrava is truly high,

and not only is that the case within the city

but in regards to the nearby Polish market

as well. This, of course, bleeds into rent

prices, which are around 25% lower when

compared to Brno or Prague. Despite that,

we still believe in our project. The fact

that it is essentially within the city centre

makes it stand out among other projects.

It will be a colorful mix of logistics, city

logistics, e-commerce, light industry with

the potential for R&D centres and retail

showrooms and pickup locations.

How far has the project progressed

as of right now?

Our first priority is the construction of

backbone infrastructure, that is, an access

road from the main roads and a central

avenue to which the industrial halls will

be connected. Currently, we are also in

the process of constructing three halls,

one with an area of almost 30,000m2 and

the other two significantly smaller.

Can you already reveal the names

of some companies that will rent

your premises?

P3 Ostrava Central’s historically first

tenant is Linde Material Handling. They

will be placing their Northern Moravia

branch in the park where they will sell,

rent and service robotic carts and other

handling technologies as well as offer

intralogistics solutions. The relocation is

planned to take place over the second half

of summer.

We are also in the late stages of

negotiation with a number of other

interesting

companies

spanning

a variety of fields. We still have fifteen

buildings on offer, meaning there is still

a lot of work ahead of us, however, we

definitely look forward to it.

Mr Zacha, thank you for the interview.

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