Quick Leases Show Brazil’s New Logistics Demand

CAJAMAR, BRAZIL-This country’s explosion of growth has spread to the industrial sector, proven in part by AMB Property Corp.’s recent lease-up of about 563,000 square feet within three weeks of breaking ground on the speculative CCP Cajamar Industrial Park. The company is now building two facilities here in the park, which will eventually total about 1.9 million square feet, in a joint venture with Cyrela Commercial Properties.

Buildings 300 and 400 total 640,000 square feet. Two logistic firms have signed leases for most of both buildings. AMB did not name the new tenants.

Kim Snyder with AMB says the industrial market follows the frenzied new development and leasing of hotels, retail and office projects in the country, especially around Sao Paulo, which is about 10 miles southeast of this site. “Warehouse and logistic facilities are in heavy demand, as consumer product orders boom in the region,” he tells GlobeSt.com.

The company is at the beginning of the industrial growth for the area, which only has about 7.5 million square feet, Snyder says. The market should grow at about 5% to 10% per year, he says. AMB has been working with property in Mexico for about seven years, and this new Brazilian growth has caused the company to form a Latin America team, with 11 people dedicated to Brazil. “There’s also this interplay now going on between Mexico and Brazil, with both countries interested in trade and development. It should be lucrative,” Snyder says.

His firm is providing new ideas to the country, including up to 40-foot clear heights, heavy slab capacity floors, large truck ports and sophisticated sprinkler systems. “However, we have to be careful how to do it, as we have to meet their standards, which are a little different than ours,” Snyder says. The firm also is buying smart, taking up land at the spokes of transportation to the city, he says. “There’s just not a lot of competition here yet.”