Majaal Warehouse Company, which provides industrial facilities for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) is showcasing its offering of industrial space at the Gulf Industry Fair 2015 (GIF), which opened in Bahrain today.

The Bahrain-based company, which now operates over $60 million worth of flexible use industrial space, is becoming a significant economic force multiplier for the industrial sector of Bahrain’s economy, and it is showing aspirations to grow regionally.

Majaal Warehouse Company believes its purpose is to facilitate growth. Considering the follow-on investments and employment generated by the 32 tenants who fill the 400,000 sq ft of leasable area, Majaal looks to be delivering on that promise.

“Our design was very open span, with no columns, so we started to find ourselves able to serve a vast variety of customers – we weren’t locked in on one sector. We have banks, bakers, factories, and print houses,” says Amin Al Arrayed, Majaal’s co-founder and managing director.

Having completed the third and final phase of its initial investment, the wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait’s First Bahrain Real Estate Development Company has its sights on Saudi Arabia and Oman. Majaal is looking at raising capital to set up similar projects there, paving the way for regionalisation of the SME-oriented brand that it has so successfully instituted in Bahrain.

A feature that Majaal’s tenants can capitalise on is access to raw materials and services from companies within the Bahrain Investment Wharf and the wider Salman Industrial City. “There’s a lot of referral business. And the vibrant community in Salman Industrial City translates into business – for example, Arabian Sugar (based at nearby Bahrain International Investment Park) does its packaging in Majaal,” says Al Arrayed.

Built in the midst of a season of austerity following the global economic downturn in 2008 and a subsequent season of uncertainty in 2011, the company is built on a lean and entrepreneurial team.

The accomplishment of the Majaal industrial real estate dream owes much to the promoters’ bold decision to go ahead when most developers were wary of investing.

As Al Arrayed recalls: “It was a new sector then and quite honestly it was unfashionable. I remember having some pretty difficult discussions with my board back in 2008 when we decided that, maybe, that was not the time to build another tower – that it was time to go into warehousing.”

Al Arrayed says when they first started, Grade A industrial warehousing didn’t exist. “Today, we have a market. We work with our clients to understand what sorts of features and services they need. It is much less academic, and more receptive and responsive because we have that tenant base.”

Based on its experience, Majaal expanded its services to offer full investment lifecycle support for owners of industrial lands. These services range from project feasibility analysis to oversight of development and on to leasing and facilities management.

Having earned the trust of major Kuwaiti real estate developer Al Mazaya Holding Company, Majaal began its first such engagement in the fall of 2013. This “managed by Majaal” property, along with another related development, will begin receiving new tenants in February (this month).

In 2012, 100 per cent of First Bahrain’s rental revenue was generated by buildings which represented just 13 per cent of the value of its investment properties. By early 2014, the Kuwaiti company said it had converted 39 per cent of its raw land holdings into income-generating assets like Majaal. As a result of leases signed during 2013, Majaal is on track to triple rental revenue over the coming two years. - TradeArabia News Service