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Niagara, N.Y. (WBEN) - Work is well underway in Niagara County to construct one of the largest Amazon facilities in New York State.
Local officials gathered on Wednesday in the Town of Niagara to celebrate the start of construction for the new 3.1 million square-foot Amazon Niagara Fulfillment Center along Lockport Road. Ground officially broke on the project this past spring, with the steel frame of the five-story facility much of the way in place.
"We've been doing a lot of ground, foundational work, and as you can see, we're kind of well-past the groundbreaking. But it was important for us to celebrate this important construction milestone with the town," said Glendowlyn Thames, New York's lead of economic development for Amazon. "Steel erection is well underway, and then shortly after we'll be enclosing the shell of the building. And we're still on schedule for a 2026 launch."
Amazon’s new facility will be an Amazon Robotics Sortable (ARS) fulfillment center, where millions of products are received, stored and shipped to customers.
This is Amazon’s fourth ARS fulfillment center in New York, with the others in Rochester, Syracuse and Staten Island.
"It is, what we call, our "first mile" fulfillment center, so this is our largest warehouse distribution center in our network. This is, essentially, where the journey of the package begins," Thames detailed. "Just think about our version of an online mall. If you are ordering something off of Amazon, more than likely it's starting and coming from a facility like this one, and then making its way through our network, and then to our delivery station that delivers it via the vans to your doorstep. That is the distinctive difference. We store, package and fulfill orders at a fulfillment center of this size."
State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt says he was recently in Rochester to celebrate the opening of a new Amazon facility in Gates. He is amazed with the prospect of just how large of a facility the fulfillment center will be in Niagara.
"When I got there, this facility is huge. I couldn't believe it. You don't see too many things that are built from scratch that are that big anymore. We go inside, the technology, it was the latest and greatest, the robotics, it was cutting edge. It was interesting to be on the other end of that Amazon pipeline. Usually I'm on the receiving end when the package arrives at my door, usually addressed to my wife, like some of you might have," said Ortt during Wednesday's ceremony. "But then as I was walking around this huge facility, they told me this is their medium facility. The one we're building in Niagara is our large facility. You could walk around this thing all day, and you would get lost. It's unbelievable, and this is a company that's building in New York."
