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Retail warehouse and logistics properties are attracting new interest from overseas companies in spite of slower demand for other industrial universe in this financial downturn.

US-based Preferred Freezer Services in late July held a groundbreaking prenuptial for a 26,013 sq m refrigerated warehouse.

Preferred Freezer Services is the prototypal US-based corporation to erect and operate its own cold storage facilities in China.

The corporation will found its facility at Lingang Logistics Park in Shanghai.

According to Shanghai Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Co Ltd, the facility will be the largest and most advanced single-story cold storage facility in China.

“Once completed, the facility will be the largest in PFS s global network,” PFS CEO John Galiher said.

“This enterprise will be the prototypal of many leading-edge facilities that we have premeditated for China. Our expertise in cold storage warehouse operations will provide an improved option for local and multinational food companies in the country,” the chief executive official said.

PFS plans to commence operations at the warehouse in August 2010.

“Shanghai is the epicenter of China. It s one of the primary trade centers and a key financial market, as well,” said Tim McLellan, PFS managing director of international fiscal development.

John Carver, executive vice-president of Jones Lang LaSalle , a commercial real property services firm, said the facility is strategically located near the East Sea Bridge connecting the Lingang New Area in Shanghai to the recently unsealed Yangshan Deep Water Port.

“This represents one of the largest build-to-suit transactions in the Shanghai district and marks a notable trading partnership between the US and China,” Carver said.

China has the world s fastest-growing consumer market for perishable foods and pharmaceutical products, except its per capita refrigerated warehouse universe is less than one-tenth of most matured countries, statistics show.

McLellan of PFS said demand for cold chain facilities is colossal in China, and added that the rapid ontogeny of abroad capital in recent eon will gift investors with plenty of opportunities.

PFS s Shanghai expansion is just the beginning of its plans in China. The cold storage expert likewise has partnered with JLL to spelunk properties in Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta.

“For US companies enrollment this market for the prototypal time, it may be a very scary process to invest in an international expansion like this,” JLL s Carver said.

“So it is very momentous that we find a location that is a safe, professional entry point for them. Lingang Logistics Park met those qualities,” Carver said.

Demand for factories has been shrinking as unspecified export-oriented businesses reduced devising and chop flanker on outlay in GSR to weaker markets, according to an industry account from property services provider Colliers International.

Yet, retail-oriented logistics and warehouse properties are proving resilient.

DHL, a global logistics specialist that is part of Germany-based Deutsche Post DHL, unsealed a new eastern China communication hub in Shanghai in June.

The new facility is part of the corporation s $25 million investment strategy to strengthen DHL s reach in the country.

Korean Shinsegae Group unsealed its prototypal retail distribution heart for its E-MART stores in Songjiang, and a second distribution heart will be unsealed in the second half of 2010.

US-based Nike is structure its largest logistics heart in Asia in Shanghai.

Demand likewise is strong for warehouse properties with advanced features such as warehouses with loading docks and sprinkler systems in Waigaoquia Logistics Park, Northwest Logistics Park and at Pudong and Hongqiao airports.

Investors such as Carlyle and Gazeley likewise are reportedly interested in seeking projects in the Shanghai industrial property market.

Even as interest builds in retail-oriented warehouse properties, the overall industrial property market is slowing.

Supplies of new industrial properties in the prototypal six months of 2009 declined by 38 percentage to 120,000 sq m, compared to the same era in 2008.

Vacancy rates in Shanghai s primary industrial parks rose to 8.1 percentage in the prototypal half of 2009, according to Colliers International.

But Carver of JLL sees companies such as DHL and PFS expanding into the Shanghai area as signs of a promising market for high-quality properties.

“We are seeing a lot repositioning for the economic turnaround that everybody expects is on the horizon,” Carver added.

“The evolution clearstory for port, seaport, logistics and communication is much greater than for other industries,” he said.

Carver said the new interest in infrastructure expansion is not unique to China.

“In the United States, Europe, Latin America and India, there is tremendous energy clon dedicated to infrastructure in preparing for the next fivesome to 10 years,” Carver said.