ProLogis is developing two pre-leased facilities totalling more than 430,000 sq.ft for Shenzhen ST-Anda Logistics Co at ProLogis Park Yunpu in Guangzhou. Additionally, ProLogis has entered into an equity joint venture (EJV) agreement as an 80% partner with a subsidiary of the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) to develop a bonded logistics park within its boundaries.

ST-Anda is one of the largest 3PLs in China, and is a subsidiary of the Singapore-based SembCorp Logistics. ProLogis acquired the land and is developing the facilities through ProLogis Park Yunpu Development Co, a 100% ProLogis-owned entity known as a Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise (WOFE).

The pre-leased facilities at ProLogis Park Yunpu constitute the first of four phases planned for the park. The full build-out could bring the park's total developed space to 1.25 million square feet.

According to Ming Mei, ProLogis' senior vice president and managing director for China, Guangzhou has become a dynamic regional centre and manufacturing hub for automobiles, electronics and consumer goods.

In Tianjin, one of China’s key port cities with a container throughput of 3.8 million TEU last year, Phase I of ProLogis Park TEDA will consist of four facilities totalling 594,300 sq.ft, while Phase II is expected to add another 793,270 sq.ft of distribution space, providing a total build-out of nearly 1.4 million square feet.

The EJV is expected to invest a total of approximately $45 million in the multi-phase joint venture.

TEDA was established in 1984 with a total planned area of nearly 9,900 acres. It has become one of China's most successful industrial parks, with the greatest amount of exports and highest GDP of any of the country's economic zones for the past seven years, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. By the end of 2004, there were more than 3,800 foreign investment projects in TEDA, with a cumulative foreign direct investment of $12.1 billion.

As one of only eight Type B Bonded Logistics Parks in China, ProLogis Park TEDA will enjoy an efficient export customs tax refund policy, in which cargo is considered already exported once it enters the park.

Additionally, ProLogis has the right of first refusal to be the developer of any future logistics parks at TEDA.

(Source: eyefortransport)