Pan-European owner, manager, and logistics and semi-industrial real estate developer VGP , announced the beginning of construction of its first business park in Serbia, VGP Park Belgrade, adjacent to Belgrade’s international airport this week, with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic taking part in a ground-breaking ceremony March 13.
“I am glad that we managed to bring this Belgian company to our country, and we believe that we can build a stronger, more economically successful Serbia because it is difficult to imagine any success in production and trade without excellent logistics,” said Vucic.
“This year Serbia will also be a champion in attracting foreign direct investments, which will further improve the business environment in our country.
“That is why you are welcome to come to other cities, to continue to love Serbia with the same passion and to visit the south, which is being built at a high speed and which can offer you excellent business conditions,” Vucic added.
The new 1,140,000 square meter VGP Park Belgrade will be located next to the M-70 and M-75 motorways and the Belgrade ring road, in close proximity to Belgrade’s international airport, and 15 kilometers west of the city center. Total future lettable area to be developed will amount to approximately 487,000 square meters, which is slated to make this the largest logistics center in Serbia.
Nenad Bjelogrlic, Country Manager for VGP Serbia, also announced the first tenant for this new park. Delhaize Serbia, the Serbian subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize, one of the world’s largest food retail groups. The company will lease more than 41,000 square meters for the opening of its second distribution center in Serbia.
Jan-Willem Dockheer, CEO of Delhaize Serbia, commented on the deal, saying: “Our company remains consistent with the strategy of expanding the retail network, and we are very pleased that our second distribution center will be built in such an important and sustainable location.
“In the next ten years, we will further expand our spatial capacities, employ a large number of new colleagues, and we will continue to invest in the development of the local market,” he added. “I believe in success and wish the VGP Serbia team many great years of work.”
Jan Van Geet, CEO of VGP, also noted the importance of the deal.
“I came to the Czech Republic in 1994, as a 22-year-old, to go and pioneer in that, at the time, newly opened market for us,” he said. “Since then, I have seen the tremendous acceleration of both the economy and living standards of the people of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and the other countries who joined the EU in 2004.
“With our investment we want to contribute to the road towards the Serbian integration in our European union of nations, where it belongs with its long history as a part of our European family.”
Belgrade photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
