Our Global Real Estate Group recently hosted a webinar on current hot topics impacting the global warehousing and logistics market. Lawyers from our real estate and construction team were joined by Marcus de Minckwitz, EMEA head of Industrial and Logistics at Savills, and Michael Smith, president of First Mile Refrigerated Ventures, a US private equity firm investing into cold storage and processing facilities.
The webinar began with a market update from Marcus de Minckwitz (EMEA head, Industrial and Logistics, Savills).
It then moved on to a panel discussion, with Michael Smith (President, First Mile Refrigerated Ventures), Florian Thamm (Partner and Chair, Baker McKenzie's Real Estate Practice Group), Mike Webster (Partner, Construction), and Ben Farnell (Partner, Real Estate and Sustainability).
The discussion covered the following topics:
- What are the key differences between logistics and other assets?
- What sort of leasing considerations are specific to a logistics project?
- Are we seeing an increase in construction projects for warehousing and logistics developments, and has this been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic?
- What changes are we seeing to the procurement approaches for owners and developers who are developing logistics assets?
- What sort of ESG commitments are being embedded into legal documentation for logistics projects?
- What are the most popular structures used for logistics transactions in Europe at the moment?
- What are typical real estate joint venture structures?