OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2011. DIXY Group and PNK Group development company have signed a built-to-suit agreement on construction of a distribution center. The amount of investment in the project exceeds RUR 2.6 billion. Cushman & Wakefield was involved in the transaction as a consultant.

The terminal of 44,000 square meters will be built in total compliance with DIXY's technical requirements in the Vnukovo district of Moscow Region. The warehouse split into several temperature zones will provide optimum conditions for the storage of more than 4,000 items of goods, while cross-docking will ensure convenient logistics within the area.

In the process of construction PNK Group will apply a number of innovative developments borrowed from abroad and tailored to Russian environment, e.g., cooling equipment using ozone friendly non-toxic and non-combustible Freon R057. The lighting system is based on LED and equipped with motion sensors, thus reducing power consumption more than three-fold. The construction is scheduled for completion within a record period - in just nine months.

This distribution center will be the Russia's first one to meet Factory Mutual Global standards (FM Global). These standards have been developed by worldwide leading insurance companies and provide special requirements for fire safety, integrity of building structure, etc. As of this day the FM Global standards have been adopted by more than 100 countries and since they came into effect, many major international players, such as Mars, have committed themselves not to lease warehouses which do not meet the new safety requirements.

Ilya Yakubson, President of the DIXY Group pointed out: "This distribution center will become the largest one in the DIXY's logistic structure, and will meet the Company's needs with regard to a substantial growth of trade operations in the Central Federal Area subject to integration of Victoria chain scheduled for 2012. Investments in logistics and technologies are a major contribution to the effective growth of a trade company, and that is primarily true for food retail, since logistics is one of the major factors of the operator's competitive edge".

"This is already the fifth built-to-suit project of our company as we offer to the customer a comprehensive customized turn-key solution and commit ourselves to the entire range of works - from design to implementation and servicing of the built facility - says PNK Group Managing Director Oleg Mamayev. - The total area of built-to-suit projects implemented by PNK Group amounts to 145,000 square meters. The experience of cooperation with major foreign and Russian companies, such as Uhrenholt Logistic, TVOYO, Eldorado, Rosnano - puts us in position to implement most complex projects within unprecedentedly short time while taking into account each requirement of the customer".

"The deal between PNK-Group and DIXY proves that built-to-suit projects have finally taken shape as a separate segment of the warehouse real estate market. Market situation in the Moscow region actually makes such transactions the only opportunity for big tenants to acquire by way of ownership or lease a modern storage facility with ideal location, good technical parameters and in guaranteed time, - says Egor Dorofeev, Partner, Head of Warehouse and Industrial Department at Cushman & Wakefield -such deals are rather complex as they require thorough fine-tuning and preparation by all parties working on the project. DIXY applied strict requirements for the technical specifications of the future distribution center, and thanks to the expertise of PNK-Group and DIXY project team such requirements were agreed within short period of time, facilitating the start of construction forthwith upon signing of the contract".