Unhappy customers

Eurobuild asked two warehouse end-users how they felt they were provided for by developers. The responses were strikingly frank and negative.

List of complaints
P&O Trans European runs both its own and rents and manages several warehouses across Poland, with a number of developers who include ProLogis. The total area amounts to 80,000 sqm, mainly in Class A buildings and includes its facility in Piaseczno, a 16,000 sqm modern warehouse building, which is an extension of 10,000 sqm of existing space. They have plans to expand further in Poland and most of this will be concentrated in and around Poznan, Wroclaw and Katowice. In their own developments they claim to, "plan and design warehouse processes based on both the specific requirements of our customers and multi-modal general needs, in the most efficient and flexible way," according to Managing Director Ryszard Warzocha.
However he maintains that this quality of service offered by P&O Trans European, is not matched by the developers the company has had dealings with. "With the exception of one, they have been inflexible, have not understood or responded to our needs and have tried to cheat us quite blatantly."

Forgot to mention
Stolica Messenger Service recently opened a new warehouse scheme in Stolica Business Center in Łazy near Warsaw, where there is about 11,000 sqm of warehouse and industrial space at a cost of USD 25 mln. The general contractors were Black and Veatch and the architects were APA-Wojciechowski but Stolica had a number of problems finding the right developer.
"TKG were very good at understanding and responding to our needs, but our experiences with other developers were very bad. One company offered very good conditions: excellent location, low prices and prompt delivery. We soon discovered however, that the plans we got from the developer were very different from the local authorities'. The developer hadn't let on that Warsaw's ring-road was to be built through our site," says Maciej Kryda from Stolica.