EOL markets an XXL site with a European vocation, immediately available in Hauts-de-France
With over 14 million m² of warehouse space[1]the Hauts-de-France region is the second largest logistics hub in France, after the Île-de-France region. Over the years, this region has become a prime location for XXL logistics platforms. With its central geographical location, large employment pool, dense transport infrastructure and large land holdings, many of which are brownfield sites, the Hauts-de-France region is ideally suited to projects on a European scale.
While many regions are faced with a shortage of economic land and a certain reluctance to see the development of major platforms, the Hauts-de-France is an exception. Political support for logistics projects developed on brownfield sites is unwavering. Logistics is seen as a way of supporting projects to revitalise and re-industrialise the region.
Thanks to these assets and local support, by 2022 the region will have captured more than 15% of the demand for logistics real estate in France, particularly for large-scale sites, or XXL warehouses, which are increasingly in demand as a means of massifying flows.
Against this backdrop, GLP is bringing to market a 100,000 m² XXL logistics platform in Denain, an urban centre near Valenciennes at the crossroads of the A2 and A21 motorways. The Pierres-Blanches business park, on which this site is being built, is located on a former steelworks site and therefore does not involve any further land artificialisation. It also benefits from potential rail and waterway connections. These choices of alternative infrastructure to the road echo the government's decision to include in the recent Climate and Resilience Act a target of doubling the modal share of rail and waterways by 2030.
This trimodal service positions the site as a means of decarbonising supply and distribution transport, particularly in conjunction with the northern ports. The Dunkerque-Scheldt canal, which runs right next to the site, provides an opportunity to develop river freight.
"The Denain XXL logistics platform has been awarded BREEAM very good environmental certification, demonstrating our proactive approach to energy and biodiversity. With its extensive ICPE permits, this site can target mass retail and e-commerce activities, as well as activities directly linked to the region's reindustrialisation strategy. These large platforms become bridges between logistics and industry. The Pierres-Blanches business park has already been chosen by nearly a dozen manufacturers and distributors," explains Karine Louarn, logistics consultant at EOL.
On 11 May 2023, the French President cited Denain as one of the sites where real industrial change is taking place.[2] The Lesaffre group has chosen Denain as the location for its new plant. Verso Energy will be setting up a hydrogen production site on the Pierres-Blanches business park. These new sites complete a rapidly expanding industrial network following recent announcements of the creation of battery plants in Dunkirk and Douai.
At a time when authorisations for XXL sites are becoming increasingly complex and the security of these projects is often uncertain, the GLP site in Denain offers an immediate opportunity in a particularly favourable environmental, industrial and logistical context.
All the assets are in place to make this industrial and logistics hub a success in terms of economic revitalisation.