Intro
On our last day of the trip, we had our final business meeting with Prologis. Prologis is the world’s largest industrial real estate firm, working in 19 different countries. Also, Prologis is a public company rather than Cabot’s private equity approach meaning that they get their investable money from the stock market.
Prologis
We met with Paweł Sapek, Prologis’ Poland Manager, and discussed a lot of topics we talked about at previous meetings, including general information about the Polish market and the shortage of land. A large problem in Poland is the limited availability of land, which is a problem given the enormous demand
for warehouse space. This is why companies like Cabot are so interested in Poland, as there is a so much demand and not nearly enough supply. We learned about how companies, like Prologis, are looking to build multi-story warehouses to more efficiently utilize the little land they do have. By creating multi-level warehouses, they provide numerous levels giving the tenant or tenants more square footage in a smaller footprint. We also discussed the engineering that is needed to create these large structures. Mr. Sapek informed us of multi-story warehouses in Japan where they needed to account for seismic tremors. Because the building was so tall, they also needed to create a spiral ramp to allow the trucks to reach the top floors.
Summary
The final meeting of the trip was bittersweet. It marked the end of a great learning experience but also the start of real cultural exploration. Promptly after the meeting, we headed out into Warsaw with Niki Klodowska ‘18 and explored both the new and the old city. We visited some historical sight and parks, however, we mostly visited places that were popular with the Polish youth. With the accompaniment of Niki, a local, we were able to get a deeper view into Polish culture than that of the usual tourist.