LaSalle in major logistics venture

[photopress:logistics_la_salle.jpg,full,alignright]Global property investor LaSalle Investment Management has formed a joint venture with Italian developer Realty Vailog to buy and develop four logistics facilities in Shanghai for $112 million.

LaSalle, a unit of Chicago-based real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle Group is buying the properties for its LaSalle Asia Opportunity Fund III, the company said in a statement.

China’s logistics market, worth $8.3 trillion in 2006, is growing 10 to 15% a year, the company said, fuelled by booming trade, manufacturing and retailing activity.

LaSalle Investment said last August that it planned to spend $15 billion to buy and develop property in Asia over the next three to five years.

China’s fast-growing industrial property market has also attracted developers such as AMB Property and ProLogis but this is a major move into logistics facilities.
Source: Reuters