EUROCAREX: HIGH SPEED HUBS
[BIZ/LOG: Liège, December, 15] CAREX Roissy, the express-rail-cargo-dedicated organization, is a private/public partnership, which includes Air France Cargo, La Poste, FEDEX, WFS, TNT-Express, TLF and the airports of Paris and Liège. This organization has created the EUROCAREX project which is going to create an express rail cargo network with a radius of 800 km from Charles de Gaulle International Airport at Roissy – Paris’ biggest. Air cargo containers will be rail-freighted, at night, at a speed of 300 kph, using specially developed rolling stock, with air cargo pallets able to carry 80 to 100 tons. The project has the advantage of reducing environmental impact but it also clears the skies at night. The energy costs and speed limits on heavy vehicles and the gradual silting up of highway systems makes this solution a win-win option on the economic, logistical, environmental and real-estate fronts. At the end of this year the first call for tenders will be made and in 2010 the principal European airports will be interconnected. The CAREX stations and networking agreements are being set up with airports in Paris, Amsterdam and Lyon, Liège and the outskirts of London. The developmental stages are stage one: Paris - Charles de Gaulle, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, Liège, Amsterdam-Schiphol (3years); stage two: Bordeaux, Frankfurt and Cologne (Between 5 and 7 years) and stage three: Madrid, Milan, Barcelona via Perpignan and Berlin (no time specified). The real-estate element in this network is exemplified in the study with an exhaustive inventory presented for the first time of the real-estate infrastructure for the Liège airport zone. The public players on the economic front are the city, MET, SPI+, Liège airport, SOWAER, and Meuseinvest. These public partners and the private bodies involved wanted to present a picture of the synergy and existing partnerships among the various organizations. EUR 220m in public and private funding has been invested in the Liège airport area over the last few years. The public investment in infrastructure has attracted purely private real-estate investment. The dedicated logistics zone, commercialized by SPI+ and Meuseinvest, has already achieved 100% occupancy; and, the waiting list of those who want to invest is a long one. The projected arrival of TGV cargo at the airport and the fact of being in the first round of this development means real acceleration in this process. It also means that these sites foreseen as extensions to the logistical zone must be ready to attract international players. Liège already number 8 in European cargo airport rankings, with the lowest commercial rental rates in Europe, has many cards up its sleeve for the first round of EUROCAREX. Business locations offered to the transport business are being snapped up rapidly. TTS´ 10,000 meters, were quickly taken by WEERTS logistics. At Trilogis Park, there were only 12,000m available in the zone in June. The only building, owned by the Portier Group, was sold in the zone in 2007 and has already been resold and rented out very quickly indeed. Major groups national and international investors are interested in the zone, both in terms of developing their own European hubs and for venture capital investment. Liège airport zone is and will continue to be solid investment potential for business property. Things are “hotting up”.
Today, Liège is at the heart of a high speed rail hub, with a 5000 km radius, which is set to triple through 2020. The pattern of development that this is bringing in its wake is breathtaking. The story, like so many others, begins in Paris.
http://www.immoquest.be/