Where to Build a Warehouse: Gravity Models, Building Classes, and the Labor Market Trap

In this episode of Rozmowy Logistyków, Piotr Skobało and Adam Sobolewski discuss choosing a location for a new warehouse. They cover what factors to weigh when deciding where to build or lease a new building, and the opportunities and risks tied to that decision.

ANALYTICAL MODELS POINT TO A DIRECTION, NOT AN ADDRESS

The Weber model and the center-of-gravity model are classic, decades-old tools supporting warehouse location decisions — they factor in fixed operating costs, transport costs, and the distribution of demand and delivery points. A key caveat: these are supporting models, not decision-making ones. They'll point to, say, "central Poland" or "Czechia," but not a specific plot — that's just the first stage of designing a distribution network, followed by detailed location and building selection.

A PROJECT FOR THE WHOLE COMPANY, NOT JUST LOGISTICS

Opening a new warehouse — regardless of whether a company has 50 or 500 million PLN in revenue — is always a large, complex organizational project, not just a logistics one. Advisory firms that track the warehouse real estate market full-time (like Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE) address legal risks (whether a plot is suitable for construction, whether it has utilities, conversion possibilities) that are easy to miss when deciding on your own. A common mistake: designing the operation only after choosing the plot and building, instead of the other way around — first define what kind of warehouse is needed (cross-dock, an e-commerce center for 200,000-300,000 parcels a year), only then look for a location.

WAREHOUSE CLASSES, AND WHY POLAND IS CHEAPER THAN THE WEST

Modern class A/A+ warehouses are prefabricated buildings, hard flooring (at least 5 tons load capacity), over 10 m of clear height, close access to expressways. Not every business needs the highest class, though — class B can be sufficient and cheaper. A market curiosity: even though Polish warehouses are newer (built over the last 10-20 years) than those in Germany or France, rental rates in Poland run about 30% lower than in Czechia and as much as 50-60% lower than in Germany — and compared to the UK's "Golden Triangle," the gap reaches seven or eight times. That's why some Western companies locate warehouses in Poland, getting class A+ at the price of Western class B.

THREE COMPONENTS OF PRICE: BASE, SERVICE, EFFECTIVE

Today, base rent in Poland falls in the range of 3.60-6.50 euros/m² for large big-box facilities (5-7.5 euros within cities themselves), plus a service charge (utilities, park maintenance, snow removal), and finally the effective rent — the base rate discounted for developer incentives (e.g. a few months of rent-free period, racking subsidies). It's the effective rate, not the base one, that should be the basis for comparing offers — on a five-year project, a rent-free period alone during rollout (early access) can deliver close to 5% in savings.

LABOR AVAILABILITY CAN RUIN THE BEST LOCATION

Large investors (Amazon, Zalando) today bus in workers from as far as a 100 km radius, because the local labor market near major cities isn't enough. A cautionary tale from practice: a company located a warehouse near the Polish-German border, relying on the municipality's official unemployment rate (over 15%) — recruiting a full crew took over two years, because the statistics didn't account for the fact that most of the "unemployed" were working informally in Germany.

ENVIRONMENTAL CERTIFICATION AS A REAL SAVING

Certifications like BREEAM (energy intensity, water recovery, solar panels) are now standard in new logistics parks, directly affecting the service charge over the longer horizon — sustainability and the economics of the operation converge here directly, rather than being competing priorities.

FIVE STEPS OF THE SELECTION PROCESS

Gather your own operational requirements, settle on an approximate location while staying flexible, use expert support wherever there's uncertainty, narrow the decision down to a specific specification, and finally negotiate — with the awareness that every such business decision carries an element of uncertainty and requires trade-offs.