Real Asset Insight #6 June 2020

Strategy – GARBE Industrial Real Estate GmbH
A business park format
for the needs of tomorrow
GARBE Industrial Real Estate GmbH is developing a new concept targeting SME occupiers
Business parks have been providing
space for tenants from an extremely
broad spectrum of companies for
decades. Over time, the business park
concept has changed frequently, whereby
the needs of the tenants were often lost
sight of – especially in the 1990s.
A lot has happened since then. Urbanisation
and social change have had a variety of
effects: the driving factors and, consequently,
the location criteria for companies have
changed. The following aspects, among
others, have an impact in this context:
l The increasing focus of workers and
consumers on metropolitan regions makes
access to personnel and skilled workers
more difficult, especially for companies
from peripheral regions. Companies are
reorienting themselves and looking for new
locations in the conurbations.
l Industry 4.0 and last-mile logistics
lead to smaller, more flexible space
requirements as production facilities shrink
and product lifecycles become shorter.
Manufacturing within cities takes on a
new meaning but must adapt to the more
fast-moving environment.
l Increasing competition between
different types of use leads to higher land
costs as it becomes increasingly scarce.
Together with higher R&D and personnel
costs, companies are increasingly looking
for rental solutions to make the best use
of time and capital. Protracted owneroccupier
investments with long-term
commitments can thus be avoided.
l The ecological agenda to minimise land
sealing is coming to the fore and requires
other land provision concepts. At the
same time, awareness of environmental
sustainability issues is growing, as
corporate activities are increasingly guided
by an ESG-compliant approach.
Against the background of these trends,
companies that currently have to make
‘The targeted search for and realignment of
established but underused locations in an urban
context is a direct component of the strategy.’
location decisions will find ideal space
options in business parks which are for this
reason experiencing a renaissance.
For GARBE Industrial Real Estate GmbH,
business parks have also been at the core
of its activities for several years. With the
IndustrialQuarter, GARBE is developing
a new format of business park to be able
to optimally map the needs of the future.
The IndustrialQuarter therefore follows the
following guidelines:
l Conservation of resources as a basic
concept: the use of brownfields as land
has long been a focus of development
activity. In the GARBE IndustrialQuarter,
however, the targeted search for and
realignment of established but underused
locations in an urban context is a direct
component of the strategy. Existing plots of
land will be utilised more sustainably, and
the building fabric and surroundings will be
raised from their ecological use value to a
new level.
l ESG conformity as standard: the GARBE
IndustrialQuarter has been developed from
the outset to comply with sustainability and
ESG standards. This makes it easier for
potential investors to make an investment,
but also brings immediate benefits for
tenants. For example, tenants can score
points when contracts are awarded. They
also benefit directly from the ecological
concerns and innovations that have been
considered, such as local PV systems and
smart metering, which also have a positive
effect on energy costs.
l Small and medium-sized enterprises
as a target group: the backbone of
the German economy consists of small
and medium-sized enterprises. These
companies impress with their innovative
strength – a quality that has been an
advantage in global competition and has
produced many hidden champions. To be
better able to compete in the future, they
are increasingly less interested in owning
their own building, but rather want to invest
their capital in top-class personnel and
R&D. The GARBE IndustrialQuarter offers
these target groups an entrepreneurial
home to achieve these goals.
l Adaptable to the needs of tomorrow:
the lifecycle of products is becoming
shorter and shorter, as additive
manufacturing processes have now made
mass production in “batch size 1” possible.
Cumbersome production lines are
therefore a thing of the past. Floor space
keys and equipment standards are handled
as flexibly as possible in the GARBE
IndustrialQuarter to meet the most varied
needs of the tenants. This is also the case
when the needs of the tenants change.
l Corporate identity as tenant: the
company headquarters as the core of
a corporate identity is often deeply
interwoven with the history of the location.
As a tenant in a business park, the identity
between company and address is often
lost. However, it is important for GARBE to
preserve this idea of identity – or, in the
case of young companies, to develop it. In
the GARBE IndustrialQuarter the tenant is
not only seen as a space user, but also as
a defining feature of the location identity.
GARBE therefore actively supports the
tenant in the presentation of the company
within a business park.
26 Real Asset Insight | Issue 2 July 2020