March 31, 2014. There is currently 760,000 sq m worth of warehouses in Yekaterinburg, and the shortage of 600,000 to 900,000 sq m has been felt for a few years now, Director of Logopark.ru’s Ural branch Vitaliy Khil said at a conference on warehousing business.

‘The acute shortage of good quality warehouses in the Mid-Urals’ capital makes companies willing to buy or rent warehouses head for nearby cities. Yekaterinburg risks losing its top position in the unofficial rating and faces serious competition from Perm, Chelyabinsk, and Ufa,’ Khil feels.

Sigma Logopark Director-General Andrei Panin agreed with Khil entirely.

‘Bashkortostan has been experiencing a boom in the supply of good quality warehouses over the last few years. We have seen several companies unable to find storage space in Yekaterinburg and coming to Sigma Logopark here,’ Panin said.

The tendency to leave Yekaterinburg for other places might continue, given the comparable data on the amount of vacant storage space. According to Yekaterinburg Council, the figure comes to 0.1% in the Mid-Urals’ capital, whereas in Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, and Kazan the figures are 9%, 17%, 16%, and 11%, respectively.