Pical Pantaco Industrial Park spreads across 60 hectares in the Vallejo industrial zone located in the northern part of Mexico City and it has become the center for logistic activity in Azcapotzalco.
Pical Pantaco industrial park has become the center for logistic activity in Azcapotzalco in Mexico City, where small and mid-sized importers and exporters play the main role.
The location of Pical Pantaco has positioned it as a strategic industrial park for the handling and distribution of consumer goods within the Mexico City Metropolitan Area as well as for raw materials for industries located in nearby industrial parks.
Benjamín Wollenstein, general director for Pical Pantaco, explains that Pical is an acronym for Pantaco Internal Port and Center for Logistic Activities and mentions that it was Julio Scherer who actually named it.
“It is definitely an internal port that receives goods, but not to customs clearance. However, we do have three General Storage Warehouses that operate internally under the tax warehouse scheme and we also have a fiscal precinct that just started operating after three years of battling with paperwork. But mainly, we are about logistic activities, operators receiving all kinds of products, picking, packing and distributing them. We even have last mile companies and companies that use us as storage for their businesses. It is a full scale center for logistic activities,” mentions Mr. Wollenstein.
Pical Pantaco owns 105 warehouses spread over 280,000 square meters of leasable land and the current occupancy is 100%. “There are many companies that store their products here, they own shops in the Historic City Center, La Merced market and the Tepito area, others sell from here to the rest of the city and even to the South of the country,” informs Mr. Wollenstein.
Pical Pantaco warehouses a wide variety of products such as resins, milk, motorcycles, beans, paper, floor tiles, celulose, sugar, costume jewelry, lightings, groceries, fabrics, toys, seeds, bags, sporting goods, plastics, wooden planks, paints, steel products, electronics, wine, butiric fats, clothes, wood, cocoa, furniture, machinery, whey, canned goods, electronics and shoes, just to mention a few.
A hidden giant: Pical Pantaco Industrial Park
• 105 warehouses.
• 500+ leaseholders.
• 100% occupancy rate.
• 19 km railway track and the country’s most important railway station.
• 280,000 square meters in roads and switching yards and a proprietary train engine to mobilize carts within the park.
• 905 loading points (454 leading to roads and 451 to train tracks).
• 3 accesses, 1 weighing station of 150 tons for train carts and 3 weighing. stations for trucks. Weighing stations are djacent to the Ferrovalle terminal and a customs area.
• 1 of the truck weighing stations is certified to give SOLAS export certificates.
• 1 park just for shipping containers.
• 2,000 loading cars coming in and out each day and 5,000 people.
“We rent out spaces from 360 square meters. We have had clients who have asked us to build platforms and we have accommodated. Others have requested offices and we are more than happy to consider it as long as it works out on both ends. We offer good and safe facilities.” Benjamín Wollenstein, general director for Pical Pantaco.
New companies coming to Azcapotzalco
The companies that come to Pical Pantaco do not only seek warehousing, the park has also been used as the setting for movies, ads, TV shows and even series. “There was even a helicopter landing for an Italian movie. I remember that when Ringling Brothers came to Mexico they performed at the Arena CDMX and they did not stay in hotels, they stayed in their own train. They stationed the train at Pical Pantaco, elephants, horses and dogs, but not the felines as they did not travel on the train. We sometimes saw the artists go out for a run and come back to their train,” remembers Benjamín Wollenstein.
It is important to mention that many of the companies that have come to Pical Pantaco in the last few months are last mile and ecommerce as these sectors exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to EY-Parthenon, ecommerce almost doubled its size in Mexico between 2019 and 2020, reaching an estimated value of 11,000 million dollars and a market penetration of 5%.
“Two huge companies have made considerable investments not just in rental but in upgrades to the actual warehouses. They did major modifications to better serve ecommerce ventures. We would love to have other kinds of clients at Pical Pantaco, a couple of film studios have reached out to us about a build to suit and we also have projects for office and back office spaces, 60 hectares offer endless possibilities,” mentions Mr. Wollenstein.
Among the companies interested in coming to Pical Pantaco is the app Lomotif, and a last-mile company that intends to install smart lockers. “The trend in last mile companies is to come directly to people's homes and in this case they can choose the area where the locker is located and the delivery person drops off the product there. Meanwhile, the customer receives a QR code in their phone that opens up the locker. We are talking to this company to see if they are interested in renting with us,” says Benjamin Wollenstein.
Many of Pical Pantaco clients are of Asian origin, from China, Korea and Japan. “The location is convenient for them as many of their shops are in the Historic City Center, Peña y Peña, Tepito and La Merced. They store their products here and do daily pick ups in one-ton or three-ton vehicles.”
Pical Pantaco leases spaces to companies such as The Green Corner, Alucomex, Sports World, 99 Minutos and even a discount shop for Procter & Gamble.
An industrial park with history
Mr. Wollenstein says that Pical Pantaco is a facility with history. It started off as the grains distribution center for Mexico City which was operated by Almacenes Nacionales de Depósito S. A. In 1994 Mr. Julio Scherer attempted to privatize the warehouses and sell them individually.
“Julio Scherer created a condominium regime and therefore each warehouse has its own registration number. He attempted to sell them as individual units, which was unsuccessful. The authorities offered to set up a tax precinct opposite Pical Pantaco, but that did not happen so the warehouses were not sold,” explains Benjamin Wollenstein.
The general director adds that Pical Pantaco is successful partly because the leasing process is efficient, no bureaucracy involved. If a company wishes to rent out a space and they present the required documentation, the contract is signed within 20 minutes and once the security deposit is cleared, the warehouse is ready for them that very afternoon. This does not mean our clearance process is not thorough, it is just efficient. We have more than 500 leaseholders, if one leaves we have a new one almost immediately.
Benjamin Wollenstein concludes by saying that if companies require a perfect location in Mexico City, Pical Pantaco is the option. “We rent out spaces from 360 square meters. We have had clients who have asked us to build platforms and we have accommodated. Others have requested offices and we are more than happy to consider it as long as it works out on both ends. We offer good and safe facilities.”
Mr. Wollenstein says that Pical Pantaco is a facility with history. It started off as the grains distribution center for Mexico City which was operated by Almacenes Nacionales de Depósito S. A. In 1994 Mr. Julio Scherer attempted to privatize the warehouses and sell them individually.
“Julio Scherer created a condominium regime and therefore each warehouse has its own registration number. He attempted to sell them as individual units, which was unsuccessful. The authorities offered to set up a tax precinct opposite Pical Pantaco, but that did not happen so the warehouses were not sold,” explains Benjamin Wollenstein.
Mr. Wollenstein adds that Pical Pantaco is successful partly because the leasing process is efficient, no bureaucracy involved. If a company wishes to rent out a space and they present the required documentation, the contract is signed within 20 minutes and once the security deposit is cleared, the warehouse is ready for them that very afternoon. This does not mean our clearance process is not thorough, it is just efficient. We have more than 500 leaseholders, if one leaves we have a new one almost immediately.
Benjamin Wollenstein concludes by saying that if companies require a perfect location in Mexico City, Pical Pantaco is the option. “We rent out spaces from 360 square meters. We have had clients who have asked us to build platforms and we have accommodated. Others have requested offices and we are more than happy to consider it as long as it works out on both ends. We offer good and safe facilities.”
