The two assets, situated in prime locations in the Polish capital Warsaw and Poland’s third largest city Łódź, represent almost 100,000 sq. m. of high quality warehousing space. Both sites were acquired from Panattoni Europe, a leading developer of logistics and industrial space, for an undisclosed sum.

These combined acquisitions add to Crossbay’s growing European footprint, with Poland being a key target market for future acquisitions and further deals in the pipeline.

Like other European markets, Poland saw increased rates of e-commerce adoption during the coronavirus pandemic as government restrictions forced consumers to shop online. In 2020, warehouse investment transactions represented around 50% of the capital invested in the Polish commercial real estate market.

Marco Riva, Head of Crossbay and Logistics at MARK, comments: “Our entrance into Poland through this double acquisition of two prime assets demonstrates our ambition to become Europe’s leading urban logistics platform.

“Despite the ever-growing weight of capital looking to enter Europe’s last-mile logistics markets, we continue to see opportunities for value creation. By leveraging our network of on-the-ground teams, we can source attractively priced opportunities and take a hands-on approach to asset management.

“We see potential to develop the Crossbay platform further, expanding into new geographies and sub-sectors as part of MARK’s multi-platform strategy that allows institutional investors to access portfolios of scale across different asset classes.”

Launched in May 2020 by leading private equity real estate investment manager MARK, Crossbay was designed to enable institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers to grow their exposure to the fast-growing last mile logistics sector.

Crossbay focuses specifically on single-user distribution centres in locations no more than a 90-minute journey to the centre of the nearest city. Single-tenant assets require less intensive asset management than multi-let industrial units and are less exposed to the performance of the wider economy than larger ‘big box’ warehouses.

The platform’s 600,000 sq m portfolio hosts a high-profile tenant base, counting leading 3PLs such as FedEx and DHL, as well as major e-commerce brands like Amazon, as occupiers.

In December 2020, MARK announced a successful capital raise for Crossbay, securing €550m in equity commitments from a global range of investors. Investors included the Townsend Group, CBRE GI, Credit Suisse, Nuveen and QInvest LLC.

The fundraise was then followed by a €400m debt facility from investment bank Citi in January 2021 to help further fund Crossbay’s growth and European expansion.