The logistics dualization in question: Evidence from the Paris metropolitan area

Highlights

• This paper proves the existence of a third type of logistics space in the dense part of the Paris metro area: intermediate logistics.

• Intermediate logistics facilities also call into questions the logistics dualism.

• This third segment of the logistics real estate market reveals a complex logistics landscape that goes beyond a simple distinction between urban and suburban logistics, and highlights the permanence of productive economy activities in suburbs.

• This analysis offers new perspectives on the contribution of the suburbs to the metropolization process that go beyond a classic center/periphery opposition and could stimulate public policies to propose a new discourse to enhance these spaces in the metropolis.

Abstract

We examine the logistics dualization in the Paris metropolitan area using a database revealing the stock of logistics facilities. By introducing a new typology of logistics facilities, we are able to call into question the idea of a logistics dualism. We identify a third segment of the logistics real estate market, which is neither suburban nor urban. The existence of intermediate logistics facilities demonstrates that the metropolitan logistics landscape is more complex than a simple dual structure suggests. Our analyses highlight the mechanisms of the logistics real estate market, the role of public policy, and issues related to the development of metropolitan areas.

Introduction

In recent years, the location of logistics activities in metropolitan areas has been examined in the research fields of geography, urban planning and regional sciences. Two major trends have been identified. Part of the literature has focused on the development of suburban logistics and logistic sprawl (e.g. Bowen, 2008; Cidell, 2011; Rakotonarivo & Dablanc, 2010), thus making it possible to show the contribution of ordinary activity to metropolization (e.g. Hesse, 2004, Hesse, 2008). Another part of the literature deals mainly with urban logistics and in particular, the location of new logistics buildings in densely populated areas. Urban logistics is a service contributing to the optimization of urban distribution, providing innovative solutions to companies while respecting environmental and social conditions (Dablanc, Morganti, et al., 2017; Dablanc, Zeting, et al., 2017). Urban and suburban logistics are the result of these two spatial trends: concentration and dispersion, two antagonistic spatial dynamics that co-exist in metropolitan areas. The result is a dualism in the logistics real estate market, which has been identified in several metropolitan areas around the world (Rodrigue & Berhends, 2018; Heitz, 2017).

It is difficult to assess from the literature what these two segments represent as shares in a real estate market in a metropolitan area. Indeed, it does not provide information on the existing logistics real estate stock or other types of logistics facilities that may exist. In this paper, we will analyze the logistics real estate stock in the Paris Region to evaluate the shares of urban and suburban logistics. We make use here of a database that reveals the existing stock of logistics facilities, and develop a new typology of logistics facilities, on the basis of which we call into question the logistics dualism. In doing so, we identify a third segment of the logistics real estate market, which is neither suburban nor urban. Intermediate logistics demonstrate that the metropolitan logistics landscape is more complex than a simple dual structure suggests. Here we study intermediate logistics and its trajectory in order to call into question the logistics dualism. Our analysis of a declining of intermediate logistics facilities in the Paris region suggests that “logistics dualization” is a process that tends to exacerbate the urban and suburban logistics real estate market more than a logistics dualism. Moreover, the method used to distinguish intermediate logistics from urban and suburban logistics invites us to call into question the perception of “urban logistics” and to go beyond the criteria usually used in the literature to define it.

We first present a literature review regarding the principal dynamics of the logistics real estate market (Section 2). Then we describe the data and methods we have used to analyze this market in the Paris Region. From these data we build a typology of municipalities based on their density and logistics profile (Section 3). We go on to analyze suburban and urban logistics as the dominant modes of production of logistics facilities and intermediate logistics (Section 4). In Section 5, we analyze the trajectory of intermediate logistics and discuss “logistics dualization”. We present our conclusions in Section 6 which generate key knowledge to better manage the development of logistics facilities in metropolitan areas.