Dear LEED community,
we are working on a project in Berlin, Germany. The existing building is a logistics center consisting of a logistics and warehousing facility made up of 3 units (48,355 sf high-storage racks and packaging stations + 5,853 sf refrigerated) and an additional building with social rooms and administration offices (5,842,5 sf). Our client uses the warehouse for storing medical products and compiling these products for clinical trials.

The office building is mostly naturally ventilated (except for the WCs, showers and server room, which are not regularly occupied), and naturally conditioned (no cooling). All regularly occupied spaces within the office building comply with ASHRAE 62,1, section 5.1.
The warehouse is naturally ventilated and mechanically conditioned. As typical for warehouses, it doesn’t have windows or openings except for the smoke outlets in the roof and therefore doesn’t meet the ventilation rates required by ASHRAE 62.1.

Our question: Are warehouses excempt from the ventilation requirements?

Any suggestions how we should deal with this? Should we provide detailed analysis documenting the constraints and explaining that due to the function, the base building systems cannot be upgraded?

Thanks a lot in advance