Why did you design a multilevel warehouse in 2008, and how did that impact the cost of the facility? Back when we designed our first warehouse in Bommasandra, Bengaluru, we considered the present and the potential price of that land and the emerging uses of land in the vicinity.The high market value of the land did not justify building a single level pre-engineered building that would require vehicles to be parked on the roads. So, we built a multilevel structure with basement parking, three floors for warehousing and three floors for offices and commercial space. This reduced the price of land per square foot to 1/6th of what it would have been if it were a single level warehouse. Multilevel warehouses are more economical both in their initial and recurring costs. The cost of maintenance, security and the time needed for the internal movement of men and materials is significantly lower than in spread out, single level warehouses. How did your reasoning impact the design of the warehouse? Since we could foresee that the price of land in that area would rise, making it unviable to continue using three floors as a warehouse, we purposely designed the structure with long spans so that those floors could be repurposed for industrial and/or commercial use when necessary, thus avoiding demolition, debris creation and disposal. Until today, the site is still being used as a warehouse. Are other countries also developing multilevel warehouses? Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, South Korea and the USA have been building multilevel warehouses for years, with European countries following suit. Even China, a country with a lot of land, has been building multilevel warehousing and industrial buildings to conserve land. If we are smart, we will make multilevel warehouses mandatory so that agricultural land isn’t wasted to build single level warehouses. We must leave a liveable environment for future generations. Multilevel warehouses: soon to become a mainstream phenomenon “With the pandemic vaulting the e-commerce sector on a higher growth trajectory and the entry of players such as the Tata Group and Reliance Group in this highly competitive space, multi-storey warehouses could become a mainstream phenomenon much earlier than expected,” observes Vivek Rathi, Director, Research, Knight Frank India. “Besides facilitating optimum land utilisation in congested cities such as Mumbai, multi-storey warehousing will effectively reduce delivery timelines and transportation costs. Such solutions are already in place in other Asian markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. 3PL players have been scouting for in-city development opportunities across Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. The high real estate costs in these cities make it a challenging venture and turnkey opportunities such as defunct mills, factory units or shuttered malls are being considered.” “We’re actively looking at expanding our portfolio of in-city distribution centres in select tier-1 cities and developing multi-storey assets,” says Abhijit Malkani, CEO, ESR India. “The current infrastructure for in-city distribution is archaic and non-compliant. These will be smaller land parcels as land inside city limits is scarce; they will address the rising demand from quick commerce companies and support same-day delivery for retail, F&B, pharma and e-commerce companies.” “India is moving to multilevel warehouses as that is the only way to increase the revenue or profit per square foot in a scenario where the horizontal expansion is limited,” points out Aalok Bansall, CEO, BuildMyInfra.com. “When the height of a warehouse is sought to be increased, the only option is multilevel racking or a multilevel mezzanine structure. Multilevel warehousing makes it easier to neatly store different store-keeping units or manage multiple clients at different levels. It also helps reduce rents vis-à-vis the option of multiple small warehouses. Undoubtedly, multilevel warehousing is the future. Vikas Choudaha, Business Head, Storage Solutions, Godrej, believes people will be building more efficient taller and taller warehouses. “In a warehouse, there are areas which are taken up by the racking and other storage solutions and open areas,” he says. “I expect mezzanines to come up in those areas. However, unlike the usual mezzanines within structures these will be free-standing mezzanines which allow warehouse users the freedom to build them as and when needed.”