Amazon Eyes 4M SF Warehouse on Long Island

Amazon wants to plant a 4.2 million-square-foot warehouse development in the middle of Long Island.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has filed plans to build two warehouses on 140 acres of woodland near Sunrise Highway and Beacon Drive in the hamlet of Holbrook, east of Long Island MacArthur Airport, Newsday reported.

The $1 billion fulfillment warehouse complex would be its largest on Long Island, and 21 times larger than any existing facility there.

Plans call for two connected industrial buildings, open 24/7 and expected to draw 300 big rigs a day.

They include a 3.7-million-square-foot “sortable fulfillment center” where goods would be stored before being purchased by customers and a 450,000-square-foot storehouse where independent contractors’ vehicles would pick up bought merchandise before shuttling it to customers.

The proposed project would require a zoning change to industrial from the Town of Islip. Current zoning was changed from industrial to commercial more than a decade ago to mixed-use development for a residential community that was never built.

Amazon plans to apply for tax breaks from the Islip Industrial Development Agency, Brad Griggs, the firm’s director of economic development for the Northeast, told Newsday. He said the project won’t be built without the tax relief.

The Holbrook land is owned by Scannell Properties, a developer based in Indianapolis. Pending approvals from the Town of Islip and other government agencies, Amazon would buy the property from Scannell for an undisclosed price, Griggs told the publication.

Once approved, construction would take between 18 and 24 months.

Amazon has nine facilities totaling more than 1 million square feet on Long Island. Its largest facility is a 200,000-square-foot delivery station in Syosset.

In addition to the Holbrook site, the company plans to build a 150,348-square-foot distribution warehouse on nearly 27 acres in Massapequa, on the site of the vacant Sunrise Mall. Approvals are pending in the Town of Oyster Bay.

– Dana Bartholomew