The unique project of a distribution centre for the car manufacturer BMW, which is being built in the heart of the Ostrava Airport Multimodal Park in Ostrava-Mošnov under the baton of the major development company GRIDARCH, has become synonymous with the international success of domestic industrial development and cooperation in the development of strategic industrial zones.
The Czech development company GRIDARCH is behind the construction of the large industrial complex situated in the vicinity of Leoš Janáček Airport in Ostrava. It has been run by Tomáš Novotný for over two years now. An experienced professional who has worked as a regional and/or operations director for the biggest players in the market and was also a member of the investment committee during his more than twenty-year career.
The company has undergone a fundamental rebranding and transformation into a modern developer of industrial properties under his leadership, and continues to build the strategically important Ostrava Airport Multimodal Park (#OAMP) project in Mošnov. It is currently one of the most important logistics hubs in Central Europe. Its importance is also demonstrated by the fact that it will soon welcome a very special tenant – the BMW Group and DP World, which has been entrusted with securing logistics operations for their new distribution centre.
Fourteen halls in five stages
The construction of #OAMP started in 2018. Of the five planned stages, two stages with a total of eight halls are fully completed and used by manufacturing companies and 3PL operators (the Third-Party Logistics operator is an external logistics service provider that takes over the management of the supply chain on behalf of the company – ed.). The implementation of the third stage, which will house the BMW Group’s overseas logistics distribution centre, is successfully approaching its final stage. GRIDARCH is currently completing all coordination work in cooperation with the group’s future operator, DP World, and is preparing for the handover of the premises.
The interest in Ostrava Airport Multimodal Park is also evidenced by the fact that the further 160,000 sq m, which GRIDARCH plans to build as part of the fourth and fifth stages, will probably soon be leased out as well. The fourth stage, which will include one hall, has already received a building permit, while the fifth stage – consisting of two halls – has undergone the EIA procedure.
As a whole, Ostrava Airport Multimodal Park covers an area exceeding 1 million sq m, where, once all the 14 halls are completed, there will be approximately 550,000 sq m of leasable commercial premises. All of these halls are designed and built with an emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency, with the main certification standard being the international environmental certification BREEAM, or more precisely BREEAM New Construction.
The uniqueness of the #OAMP project in Ostrava-Mošnov, which has been attracting major tenants since the beginning, lies not only in its strategic location, technical excellence of the buildings and sustainability. It also lies in its multimodality.
From Ostrava out to the world
When it is an inspection day at the Ostrava multimodal park construction site, Tomáš Novotný leaves his home early in the morning in order to put his car keys down on the table at home at around nine o’clock in the evening – 720 km there and back…
“In recent months, my colleagues and I have been devoting a lot of time to business trips to the Moravian-Silesian Region. As part of the third stage of the project in Mošnov, we will soon complete three top-notch industrial halls, which will be used as a distribution centre by the BMW Group, for which we are building these halls on a tailor-made basis, based on a ten-year contract,” Tomáš Novotný, explains the main reason for his trips to the Ostrava region. He adds that the BMW distribution centre in the Ostrava multimodal park is a project that is currently one of the most significant and largest projects in the Czech Republic. It will be used to distribute automotive parts that will travel from there to the whole world. “Following Germany, one of the stages of our park will become only the second distribution centre of the BMW car manufacturer in Europe,” Tomáš Novotný describes the uniqueness of the tenant of the park’s third stage. There are only two such BMW distribution centres in the world actually – in the USA and in Brazil.
He believes that one of the reasons why such a significant client, as the BMW Group undoubtedly is, chose this Ostrava park is its multimodality. “The true uniqueness of our park lies in the synergy of three types of transport – air, road and rail. Thanks to the direct vicinity of the Leoš Janáček Ostrava Airport, building users have easy access to air freight. In the heart of the complex, which is also located in the immediate vicinity of the motorway, there is a container terminal connected to the national railway network,” Tomáš Novotný describes the advantages of the park. Simply put, this means that the shipment can be loaded into a container directly in the warehouse, moved a few hundred meters further to a train and then the container with the goods sent by rail. Or by plane.
BMW Group, which will bestow the location with prestige as well as some 700 jobs, will be handed the three halls over just after 13 months of construction. That means this summer.
However, GRIDARCH’s work does not end here with the #OAMP project. Their goal is to create new opportunities within this location, support strategic tenants in their growth, and thus increase the potential for newly created jobs. Currently, the developer is offering production and logistics premises in three halls within the next two stages of the park. The hall with an area of approximately 90,000 sq m has already received a valid building permit. The final, fifth stage, then represents the implementation of another 75,000 sq m in two industrial buildings. Both of these stages also have a direct connection to rail transportation. “We believe in the attractiveness of the location, which the BMW project has verified, and therefore we are confident that we will complete the next stages of the construction very soon. The current interest shown by our potential clients indicates just as much,” adds the CEO of GRIDARCH.
New challenges and a clear strategy
The construction of the Ostrava Airport Multimodal Park in Mošnov, thanks to which GRIDARCH quickly became one of the key and reliable players in the industrial development segment, is not the only reason why Tomáš Novotný and his team often travel. And not only to northern Moravia. After completing the three halls for BMW, GRIDARCH only has two – compared to the previous ones – less extensive stages to complete. And with that, this strategic industrial zone should be completed and definitively over. It is therefore necessary to start looking around in good time for other suitable locations where GRIDARCH could expand.
“There are no other plots of land that would allow expansion within the complex. That is why we are mapping both its surroundings and other strategically important and easily accessible locations throughout the country,” says Tomáš Novotný. And he also outlines the direction that GRIDARCH plans to take in the coming years. “In addition to the Moravian-Silesian and Olomouc regions, we are also looking at Central Bohemia and the Brno area. Those are the places that we are interested in. And in principle, we would like to focus on larger units, let’s say those with an area of 10-15 hectares or more.”
Jana Hrabětová, Photo: GRIDARCH archive
