Amazon to open 1M sf distribution center on Staten Island: report

Amazon plans to open its first New York distribution center on the west shore of Staten Island, with the company set to take 975,000 square feet at a warehouse in the borough.

Sources told the New York Post that the Jeff Bezos-owned company will open a “fulfillment center” at Matrix Development Group’s Matrix Global Logistics Park in Bloomfield on Staten Island’s west shore. The warehouse will be open by the end of summer, according to the New York Post.

The New Jersey-based developer is building a commercial hub that will eventually span 3.5 million square feet, according to a report from New York York YIMBY. Last month, the firm filed plans for a 2.3 million-square-foot building at the park. The 671-acre site had been previously earmarked for a 82,500-seat NASCAR racetrack.

Amazon’s center is expected to be the first of four warehouses on the site, according to the Post. “We think the sites could bring in 3,000 employees,” Steve Grillo, first vice president of the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation, told the newspaper. “Matrix has been very secretive about the tenants, but the chatter is that Amazon is coming in.”

A representative for the Matrix declined to comment. The notoriously press-shy Amazon said the proposed distribution center on Staten Island are “rumors and speculation.”

Last week, Amazon agreed to pay $13.7 billion for Whole Foods, a move that sent shockwaves through the grocery industry.  The online retail giant is also opening bricks-and-mortar stores and is said to be planning a bookstore in the Time Warner Center. [NYP] — Miriam Hall