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.

Aleš Zacha is a leading developer for P3 Czechia and plays an important role in the team that is preparing the P3 Ostrava Central project at the brownfield near DOV. He is the central node connecting builders, technicians, public officials and, most importantly, future tenants, regardless of whether they focus on logistics, trade, e-commerce or R&D and production.

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.