Amart Furniture signs 10-year pre-commitment with Goodman Group

The 48,770 square metre purpose-built facility will serve as headquarters for Amart, as well as accommodate the company’s anticipated growth.

Amart Furniture chief executive Lee Chadwick says the property will replace an existing disparate cluster of warehouses in Somerton, Victoria.

“The new distribution centre will provide a modern, safe and flexible workplace for our warehouse team,” Mr Chadwick said.

“This was one of our top priorities when designing the facility.”

The distribution centre will also increase delivery times and streamline the business’ supply chain network by allowing and speeding up direct-to-customer or warehouse-to-home deliveries on sales either in-store or online, Amart Furniture COO Scott Pears said.

The rise of e-commerce is set to make industrial property one of the better-performing property asset classes, just as appetite for retail shops and shopping centre properties takes a dive.

The advent of online shopping means the demand for large distribution centres will continue to grow and landlords such as Goodman will continue to reap benefits.

On the international scene, bigger investors and private equity groups like Blackstone and Prologis are buying big to capitalise on this demand, with tenants such as retail giant Amazon leading the charge in the industry.

Amazon has already underscored its entry into Australia with the lease of two large distribution centres in Sydney and Melbourne, both with similar sizes to Amart’s new property.

When completed, Amart’s Truganina distribution centre will have a significant racked storage to house an extensive range of products, a drive-around design with dual loading faces, a mix of recessed loading docks and on-grade roller doors and a cross-docking facility design with two large staging areas for inbound and outbound freight.

Property and supply chain firm, TM Insight evaluated Amart’s space needs and helped Amart with closing the deal with Goodman.