Fortress REIT has announced their biggest logistics development to date with Pick n Pay at their flagship premium-grade Eastport Logistics Park in Gauteng.
The leading retailer confirmed the new development will cover 36-hectares of state-of-the-art infrastructure and Fortress will ultimately own 40% of the development with Pick n Pay acquiring 60% of the new inland distribution site once the subdivision has been approved and the transfer completed.
Fortress will fund the incremental capital required for the development from existing available facilities.
CEO of Fortress REIT, Steve Brown, says he is proud to welcome Pick n Pay to Fortress’s premium-grade logistics portfolio at Eastport and to “add one of the largest FMCG distribution centres on the African portfolio to its portfolio”.
The long-term Pick n Pay lease – with an option to extend – as well as to grow the size and footprint of the facility, is set to “position Fortress’s Eastport Logistics Park and the broader R21 area as South Africa’s prime logistics hub as allied industries and businesses seek proximity and rational integration into the country’s leading logistics ecosystem,” said Brown.
Pieter Boon, CEO of Pick n Pay announced that the South African grocery chain’s newest inland distribution centre is a key investment in competitive advantage. Fortress’s Eastport facility will “help us deliver key logistics and supply chain innovations, achieving efficiencies and growing market share at a time when faster and cheaper service of our stores has never been more important to deliver on our customer promise of low prices and reliable service”.
This signature partnership with Pick n Pay puts Fortress Logistics on track to roll out its strategy of developing and owning two-thirds of its portfolio in logistics, “making us the largest owner and on-going developer of core, premium-grade logistics real estate in South Africa,” added Brown.
The intensified tilt to e-commerce in recent years means that Fortress’s heavy logistics asset weighting has placed it in a prime position to benefit from the rapid evolution in logistics and supply chain that have re-defined retail in the wake of the digital and Covid-19 revolutions.
Key to Fortress’s success through disruption has been “our ability to partner with clients, powering their growth by understanding their challenges and supporting their own evolutions in response to change with state-of-the-art logistics boxes tailored to meet their own business and service ambitions,” concludes Brown.
The development is scheduled for completion in 2023.
