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Construction of another large warehouse is nearing completion in rural Schodack and, as far town officials know, the building is still going to be leased to Amazon.
Questions first arose in late spring about whether Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) will still be the end-user of the 278,670-square-foot warehouse being built at 1710 Schodack Valley Road, about a mile away from the company’s 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center.
A town official was informed at that time by a site supervisor the plans may change, a conversation that occurred shortly after Amazon announced it was pulling back on some of its aggressive warehouse expansion efforts nationwide as a result of third-quarter revenue growth that was its slowest in about two decades.
“To our knowledge there’s no change of tenancy,” said Charles Peter this week. He’s the supervisor of the rural town off Exit 11 of Interstate 90 in Rensselaer County.
Amazon didn’t respond to questions from the Albany Business Review on Tuesday or Wednesday about whether it will occupy the building.
A spokeswoman for the developer, Scannell Properties of Indianapolis, said the company isn’t authorized to discuss its tenants.
The warehouse is expected to be finished in January, the spokeswoman said.
Online shopping slowed as the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic eased. There has been a ripple effect companywide, with Amazon now planning to lay off about 10,000 people.
In July, the Albany Business Review contacted news media representatives for Amazon and Scannell Properties, the Indianapolis-based developer, in an attempt to confirm whether Amazon would still occupy the building.
An Amazon representative didn’t respond to the question. Scannell Properties declined to comment.
Meanwhile, construction continued. The work is being done by ARCO National Construction of Saint Louis, Missouri, the same design-build general contractor that built the 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center that opened just over two years ago at 1835 Route 9.
Scannell Properties did request some changes to the site plan in October, but the town supervisor said there has been no indication the tenant will be different.
A letter sent two months ago to Jill Duncan, vice president of project management at Scannell Properties, from Adam Frosino, project manager/engineer at McFarland Johnson in Saratoga Springs, outlined several changes in the site plan “as requested by the future tenant (Amazon).”
Those changes include shrinking the employee parking area from 438 spaces to 130; reducing the tractor trailer paved parking area from 290 spaces to 212; eliminating the guard houses at the truck entrances and exits; and eliminating electric-truck charging stations.
“The removal of these features will be completed in such a way that in the future as needed the features can be easily added back into the facility when operational demand requires,” the letter states.
Peter, the town supervisor, said it’s his understanding the construction timeline was slowed because of supply chain constraints. He’s not aware of any interior machinery being installed yet.
A 278,670-square-foot warehouse is the standard size for what’s known as an Amazon sortation center, according to Marc Wulfraat of MWPVL International Inc. in Montreal, a supply chain and logistics consultant.
“Packages from fulfillment centers are trucked to the sortation center where they are sorted by zip code, palletized and then transferred over to post offices or Amazon Delivery Stations typically within about a 200-mile radius,” Wuflraat wrote in an email. “These facilities are sometimes referred to as the middle mile because they exist between the fulfillment center and the delivery station.”
Amazon needs a sortation center in the Albany region, according to Wulfraat.
So far, economic conditions this year have led the company to pull back on its expansion plans, which has impacted 82 buildings in the United States.
“We have heard no indication that this Schodack project is impacted by the cutbacks but anything is possible because we believe more closures, cancellations and delayed openings will be announced in the near future,” Wulfraat wrote.
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