In the south, it’s all about logistics

In two or three months’ time, the municipality of San Donato is set to give final approval for a logistics facility on Via Buozzi, close to the ring road: the site covers 30,000 square metres, with the warehouse occupying roughly half of it; the project is being developed by Prologis, the world’s largest operator and owner in the sector. Not far away, another major player, Hines, has announced an investment in San Giuliano Milanese for a site of around 19,000 square metres. These come on top of those in Carpiano, Lacchiarella and Landriano, and are the latest two examples of an expansion driven by two factors: the south of Milan remains less congested and offers greater business opportunities than the A4 corridor and the eastern part of the metropolitan area; furthermore, it forms part of the strategic corridor linking Piacenza with the major centres of the north.

Marco Clerici, a logistics expert at World Capital Group, a property consultancy firm, confirms that the area is on the rise: “We are seeing demand for high-quality properties, so it remains an attractive market. At present, I do not see any risk of saturation; the rush to find ‘brownfield’ sites remains high.” According to a study by the firm, the southern Milan logistics sub-area – which encompasses the southern province of Milan, Lodi and parts of Pavia – has 340 properties totalling 3.5 million square metres: this comprises 2.4 million square metres of logistics centres (58.3 per cent) and 590,000 square metres of transit points (16.8 per cent), with the remainder being ‘Ce.Di.’s’, facilities used by large-scale retailers to receive, store, prepare and dispatch goods destined for individual retail outlets. As regards operators, 40 per cent of the facilities are owned by institutional funds, 38 per cent by local investors, 14 per cent by logistics operators, whilst the remainder are financed (mostly through leasing).

Positive figures paint a picture of a healthy market, but they must not overshadow certain warning signs. According to Damiano Frosi, director of the Contract Logistics Observatory at the Politecnico, we are seeing a slowdown compared with a few years ago: “At present, the pressure from market demand on new sites has eased compared to the post-Covid period, which saw a significant economic recovery and a sudden boom in e-commerce; this suggests that the growth in new sites is keeping pace with demand. This is reflected in the halt to the rise in property prices following years of significant growth, which had seen rents increase by 30 per cent since 2019”. As for future developments, Frosi remains cautious: “It is difficult to predict what would happen if economic demand were to rebound significantly”. He is, however, less cautious regarding the risk of saturation in certain areas: “It does exist, partly due to competition from data centres”.

The rapid development of logistics has led to initial regulation by the Region, which in 2024 passed a law governing supra-municipal developments exceeding 3 hectares in area and the procedures for identifying suitable territorial areas (ATI): some discretion is left to the provinces, which must incorporate these into their provincial territorial coordination plans. According to Claudia Terzi, the Councillor for Infrastructure, the role of the Pirellone is to address mobility issues to facilitate transport: “The southern area of Milan is certainly subject to significant development pressure, particularly in the logistics sector. The main arteries are the A7 motorway towards Genoa and the A1 towards Bologna, whilst there is a lack of a further east-west link, which the Regional Transport Plan has identified as potentially being a new motorway link between the A1 and A7: the so-called Milan Southern Outer Ring Road. Provincial Road 40 (Binaschina), in fact, is no longer able to cope with the existing traffic”. Looking to the future, the councillor explains that projects are planned which will have a significant impact: “We are awaiting final approval from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT) for the detailed design of the fourth carriageway on the A1 between Milan and Lodi, so that we can at least commence work on an initial section between the A50 Western Ring Road and the TEEM. Finally, a potential long-term project has been included: the upgrading of the former State Road 412 Val Tidone”. Milan’s southern corridor is crucial for the economy but is under pressure.