Amazon Lease at Bay Area Prologis Warehouse on Shaky Ground

Prologis is on the brink of landing Amazon for one of its Bay Area warehouses, but one more obstacle stands in the way of the e-commerce giant moving in.

Amazon signed a lease for 1345 Doolittle Drive in San Leandro last quarter, but the deal is contingent on whether Amazon obtains a business license to operate there, the San Francisco Business Times reported. If the Jeff Bezos-led company doesn’t secure approval within an allotted timeframe, Amazon is able to abandon the deal entirely.

The city of San Leandro has not yet received a business license application from Amazon for the 266,000-square-foot facility, officials told the Business Times. “We understand that Amazon may propose modifications to the site to accommodate its operations. Depending on the scope of modifications, additional city permits or approvals may be required,” a city spokesperson said, noting that city staff will continue to work with both Amazon and Prologis to see the deal through.

Prologis was in search of a tenant for its Doolittle Drive building, known as Prologis Nexus, for roughly six months last year before Amazon started a months-long negotiation process, a source familiar with the deal told the Business Times. The warehouse facility was redeveloped from an existing 60-year-old industrial building on the site and boasts 40-foot clear heights and 5,200 amps of power.

Prologis acquired the property at 1345 Doolittle Drive in 2018 and was attracted to the location in part due to its proximity to the Port of Oakland. “You’re able to turn over [property] that is virtually unleasable into something that becomes one of the best buildings in the market,” Ali Harandi, senior vice president and investment officer at Prologis, told the Business Times in 2024.

Prologis itself is growing its space on San Leandro’s Doolittle Drive corridor. The San Francisco-based firm is in the process of developing a 245,000-square-foot warehouse down the street from Prologis Nexus at 880 Doolittle Drive. Amazon tapped Prologis to build a 98,000-square-foot custom industrial facility there in 2020 but later backed out of the deal, leading Prologis to submit new plans to build the warehouse in 2022, according to the Business Times.

Amazon, meanwhile, is expanding elsewhere in the Bay Area. The company is moving ahead with its 710,000-square-foot parcel delivery facility in San Francisco. Demolition of the two existing buildings at the site is expected to begin in 2028, with work there continuing through early 2030.

— Chris Malone Méndez