The beginning of August brought a change in the professional life Vlad Radu Dumitrescu, who had acted as country manager of ProLogis, one of the world’s biggest developers and owners of logistics space. ”It is true that I have stopped working for the company as of August 1. We were a team of eight originally, and now there will be two people left,” Dumitrescu said, without providing details on the reasons behind the team restructuring. According to information in the industry, ProLogis has decided to put an end to plans to develop new logistics spaces, after completing the development of 108,000 square metres in the ProLogis Park Bucharest A1 project, located alongside the Bucuresti-Ploiesti motorway.

According to Dumitrescu’s previous statements, the developer should have started construction of a new stage of the logistics park near Bucharest, which was supposed to have a 45,000 squaremetre lettable area – out of an overall 300,000 square metres – and was in talks to acquire the land necessary for a similar project close to Arad. Dumitrescu says he had decided back in autumn to scrap the project near Arad, as well as plans to start a new stage of the ProLogis Park Bucharest Park A1.

The already built area is 100% rented out. The situation is not unique on the market. The local team of Eyemaxx Real Estate is also down from eight to three employees, with Johannes Rudnay, general manager of the Romanian branch, being among those who left. ”At this point, demand for logistics space is not strong,” Andre Hofer, CEO of Eyemaxx, says about the freezing of the company’s development plans. Eyemaxx sold its 50% stakes in two logistics projects in Timisoara and Ploiesti at the beginning of May, as well as three other plots to its former partner, Austrian investment fund Immoeast. Andre Hofer says he does not know if Eyemaxx will develop the projects taken over by Eyemaxx; it is as yet uncertain whether the company will pursue its pre-crisis plans to make 500 million-euro investments in ten logistics parks. The freezing of development plans was manifest in the first six months of the year, when Bucharest and the surrounding area saw only 40,000 square metres of logistics space delivered, compared with 350,000 in the similar period of last year, according to a study conducted by Colliers International.