Amazon Aims For Another Long Island Distribution Hub
E-commerce giant Amazon is looking to develop a new distribution facility in Hauppauge on Long Island, as the company plans another major nationwide warehouse expansion.
Amazon made its pitch to the Smithtown Board of Zoning Appeals this week, per Newsday, putting forward a plan to build a 64K SF warehouse at 49 Wireless Bvld. Around 130 people would work at the site, the company said, and it would generate some 206 trips each day.
The proposal would be to knock down a warehouse that’s already there and rebuild, Newsday reports. Developer Tritec owns the site, which spans 7.4 acres, and had previously planned to build 335 apartments there. Amazon spokeswoman Verena Gross told the publication over email the e-tailer is "proud of the investments we've made in this state and look forward to continued growth and prosperity to best serve customers."
There are at least nine Amazon facilities in operation or in the planning stages on Long Island. In Syosset, a hamlet in Nassau County on Long Island, Amazon plans to build a 200K SF fulfillment center at a 39-acre brownfield site that used to be home to a Cerrowire manufacturing plant.
Amazon leased a 110K SF logistics center in Shirley last August, and it has indicated interest in building a last-mile site in Melville. The Syosset deal, and several others that involve tax incentives for suburban e-commerce facilities in New York, have raised the question of how much in taxes local counties should hand over in order to lure the warehouses to their jurisdictions, as Bisnow previously reported.
For the Syosset project, Amazon plans to spend $72M constructing the building, which will create more than 200 full-time employment opportunities and 125 construction-phase jobs, according to the IDA. The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes deal equates to $1.9M annually for 15 years, compared to the $1M in annual taxes due on the vacant property.
Amazon is ramping up its facility plans nationally. Just this month, the company will add 100 facilities, on top of the 250 it has already opened this year.
