Montea: sustainable growth in logistics real estate

Realty Sustainable Building Award 2024 for distribution center in Antwerp

In mid-September, the prestigious Realty real estate fair took place in Brussels. There Montea won the Realty Sustainable Building Award within the Industrial & Logistics category. The prize was awarded to the distribution center that Montea is developing for Herfurth and Dries Van Noten Group at Blue Gate in Antwerp. A fine example of how the Belgian logistics real estate player combines innovation, sustainability and efficiency in its real estate projects, said Xavier van Reeth, Country Manager Belgium at Montea.

Besides the Realty Award, Xavier and his 65-employee strong Montea team may receive another coveted prize at the end of this year. Together with Golazo, Drylock Technologies and X-FAB, the company from Erembodegem is a finalist for the Enterprise of the Year award.^® which EY awards annually. "This nomination shows that our company is pioneering the redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites into sustainable and future-proof logistics sites," said Xavier. "We are currently working on several redevelopment projects in our country where we are giving heavily contaminated brownfield sites a new life."

Impressive growth course

Since its founding in 1977, Montea has enjoyed an impressive growth trajectory. "As an end investor in logistics real estate, with a focus on long-term value creation for all stakeholders, we currently have 2.5 billion euros of logistics real estate in our portfolio," Xavier confirms. "Of this, approximately 1 billion euros is located in Belgium. This value represents 2 million square meters of building area, almost half of which is located in our country. The Netherlands also represents a large part of the portfolio, and we expect a lot of growth in the French and German logistics real estate markets in the coming years."

"In addition to existing buildings, Montea also has a substantial land bank of about 2.7 million square meters that we continue to expand. After all, in addition to being an end investor, we also develop our own construction projects, keeping the completed property in our own portfolio. By building warehouses ourselves - in cooperation with reputable construction partners - we can achieve higher returns on our investments. And of course in our own projects we are in the driver's seat to build as sustainably and ecologically as possible."

Broad customer base

In which sectors is Montea strong? Xavier: "Our strategy focuses on the construction of classic logistics buildings for established 3PL providers, as well as clients from the e-commerce, pharma and food industries. We also offer modern logistics facilities, XXL warehouses, for large retail players. Finally, we also invest in urban logistics, with compact, flexible warehouses for fast deliveries. Courier services from FedEx, Amazon and DHL Express make grateful use of this."

Range of sustainable building techniques

The recently achieved Realty Sustainable Building Award proves that sustainable business and building is a common thread running through Montea's business strategy. "We build and invest in logistics real estate that transcends several generations, making sustainability crucial for us," Xavier points out. "We set the bar particularly high in this area, both for ourselves and for our stakeholders. Just one example: this year we invested 17.5 million euros in the installation of battery parks at fourteen of our Belgian sites. The stored energy - good for 35 MWh in total - can be used to serve the logistics centers, but also to power electric vehicles. With increasing automation and robotization in warehousing, energy consumption for powering machines and robots is rising year after year. Montea is reaching out to logistics market players to provide the necessary solutions for this."

"In addition to the use of green electricity, Montea also invests in many other sustainability solutions, such as the airtight delivery of warehouse buildings, the use of energy-efficient LED lighting in the workplace and the use of both recycled and bio-ecological building materials."

Energy-positive building

Montea also applies these and other sustainable techniques in the Blue Gate business park at the Port of Antwerp, which used to be a heavily polluted site. Xavier explains, "On Blue Gate we have three sites: on the first DHL Express is active, on the second Amazon. On the third site, Herfurth and Dries Van Noten Group will move in by the end of 2024. The distribution center meets the strictest BREEAM standards. In this warehouse, we built the offices in Cross Laminated Timber, ensured high airtightness of the loading docks and there is a large installation of heat pumps and solar panels, good for a capacity of 1.5MWp. The result? An energy-positive logistics building that will generate more power than it consumes in the coming decades."