Straubing Receives One of the Largest Wooden Warehouses in Europe

With an official groundbreaking ceremony, the project for one of the largest logistics properties built entirely of wood has now commenced at the Straubing-Sand harbor. The new building, which aims to set new standards in sustainable construction, is being developed by Garbe Industrial Real Estate GmbH and the joint venture partner Logicenters, Nrep’s development and management platform for logistics properties. The completion of the logistics hall, which spans a total of 27,000 square meters, is planned for the third quarter of 2025. The investment volume amounts to approximately 31 million euros.

(Hamburg/Straubing) The wooden logistics hall will be built on a plot of land measuring around 47,000 square meters, which the joint venture partners secured in the spring as one of the last large areas in the Straubing-Sand harbor. The modern logistics property is planned to have approximately 24,500 square meters of hall space, 1,500 square meters of storage mezzanine, and about 1,100 square meters of office and social space. To ensure smooth incoming and outgoing goods, it will be equipped with 24 loading bridges and nine covered sectional doors. The outdoor area will feature parking spaces for 70 cars and twelve trucks, as well as 30 bicycle parking spots.

“The new hall is a flagship project for us,” emphasizes Adrian Zellner, a member of the management board at Garbe Industrial Real Estate. “It is our first logistics property that we are constructing entirely in wood.” Thus, not only the complete load-bearing structure and the mezzanine levels but also the entire facade will be made of wood. Currently, spruce is being planned for the construction and Douglas fir for the facade. The approximately 4,400 cubic meters of wood required will be sourced from the region and comes from sustainable forestry in Bavaria and Austria.

“As a leading German project developer for warehouse and logistics properties, we are already realizing all our projects today with consideration for sustainable ESG criteria,” emphasizes Adrian Zellner, highlighting the company’s commitment to setting new standards for more sustainable construction. “With the renewable raw material wood, we can further improve the ecological balance of our new buildings. According to initial calculations, we expect, for example, a CO2 reduction of up to 66 percent* compared to a development in conventional reinforced concrete construction.”

This aligns perfectly with the joint venture partner’s goals. “Our aim is to build a sustainable and strongly ESG-oriented logistics portfolio in Germany together with Garbe,” says Martin Ohly, General Manager of Logicenters Germany, a company of Nrep, the largest real estate investment manager in the Nordic countries. “Straubing, as our first joint project, fits excellently into this strategy.”

Exclamation Mark for Sustainable Logistics Properties

Significant support for the construction of the wooden logistics hall also came from the Zweckverband des Straubinger Hafens (ZVH), the leaseholder of the property. “Garbe has convincingly shown us that they want to set an exclamation mark for a sustainable logistics property in Straubing. The clear commitment to wooden construction was decisive for us in awarding our tri-modal premium property in competition with other applicants,” says Andreas Löffert, managing director of the Zweckverband Hafen Straubing-Sand.

The planting concept exceeds the requirements of the development plan and the specifications of the Zweckverband by about ten percent. Furthermore, there will be a natural transition between an adjacent biotope and the outdoor area of the property – without parking spaces or other sealed areas, but with benches in the green area. Additionally, the lighting concept will be designed for maximum fauna-friendliness. Mayor Markus Pannermayr, chairman of the ZVH, is impressed by the project’s ambition: “I am particularly pleased that Garbe wants to implement the requirements of the Blühpakt Bayern and thus exemplary promote biodiversity in our harbor living space. In partnership with Garbe and Nrep’s Logicenters, our region is setting new standards for the industry.”

Greening of 2,000 Square Meters of Roof Area

The property itself is to be greened over approximately 2,000 square meters of roof area. An additional 16,500 square meters are planned for a photovoltaic system with a capacity of about two megawatts peak to generate renewable energy. Inside, the hall will be equipped with LED lighting and a climate-friendly air-to-air heat pump, allowing for complete avoidance of fossil energy sources for heating. An important aspect, according to the general contractor Köster Bau, is also the preservation of raw materials in the sense of circular construction. During the planning phase, deconstructible structures and selective deconstruction concepts were already taken into account. The logistics hall can thus be dismantled at any time during its lifecycle and rebuilt at another location. Similarly, the building materials used can be reused at the end of the usage phase.

For the project development, Garbe Industrial Real Estate aims for certification according to the Gold Standard of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). The latest version 2023, which sets even higher requirements for circularity and focuses more strongly on issues such as climate protection, climate change adaptation, and the preservation of natural resources and ecosystems, is particularly relevant.

However, the wooden logistics hall in the Straubing harbor is not only impressive due to its sustainability but also due to its excellent location with quick access to the highway network and direct rail connections. It is conveniently located near federal highways B 20 and B 8, as well as the motorways A 3 and A 92. Additionally, a bus stop just 200 meters away provides access to the public transport network and the new train stop Straubing-Hafen.

No Fixed Rental Commitments

The good location was also a significant reason for Garbe to build the hall without fixed rental commitments. Adrian Zellner: “We have been in concrete discussions with initial interested parties from the automotive supplier industry for several weeks, who want to use the location as a storage and transshipment area to service the nearby BMW plant.” For this purpose, the hall will have ground-level doors along the entire back side as an option for automotive logistics, which will be equipped with a canopy.
* The values were already determined in the planning phase, are considered preliminary, are based on data from Ökobaudat, and initially only consider the comparison of the building materials wood and concrete planned for the load-bearing structure and facade.

Photo: © Garbe / Image caption (from left to right): Andreas Löffert (Managing Director Zweckverband Hafen Straubing-Sand), Markus Pannermayr (Mayor of the City of Straubing), Adrian Zellner (Member of the Management Board Garbe Industrial Real Estate), Josef Laumer (District Administrator of the District of Straubing-Bogen), and Adalbert Hösl (Mayor of the Municipality of Aiterhofen)