Location, location, location is the mantra of Amazon, which is building its newest fulfillment center a stone”™s throw from the entrance to New York Stewart International Airport.
The 1 million-plus-square-foot facility, the largest warehouse in Orange County, is scheduled to be completed and open in time for the 2021 holiday shopping season. The $85 million project is on 190 acres at the intersection of Routes 17K and 747 in the town of Montgomery. (Route 747 was built in 2007 to connect the airport to Interstate 84.)
Across the river in East Fishkill, Amazon was approved to build a 631,000-square-foot warehouse on the former IBM West Campus on Route 52.
For the Montgomery warehouse, the town signed a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement of $20.5 million over the next 15 years with Amazon. Initially, the company”™s tax incentive called for zero dollars in the PILOT”™s first five years, raising a hue and cry from some elected officials and residents; it was subsequently renegotiated to a $2.7 million payment during the first five years.
Montgomery expects to see about $25 million in payments over that 15-year period. Orange County”™s Office of Economic Development expects to see an exponential return of $475 million on its investment, according to OCED director Bill Fioravanti. The PILOT agreement also calls for 85 percent of labor used on the job to be local. Laborers Local 17 in Newburgh has nearly 1,000 members living in the vicinity of the construction site.
The windowless giant, also one of Amazon”™s largest warehouses, joins at least 75 other fulfillment centers around the country. Its Montgomery location expects to employ 800 to 1,000 workers once construction is completed.
Originally dubbed Project Sailfish, Montgomery residents learned in July 2020 that the project was, in fact, an Amazon fulfillment center. With the facility to be open 24/7 and a parking lot for 1,200 cars and tractor-trailers, residents say the noise and dust from the construction is having a negative effect on Montgomery”™s way of life.
In January, Montgomery”™s Industrial Development Agency unveiled a comprehensive study of the Route 17K corridor, a six-month project geared toward engaging the public to help strike a balance between the town”™s economic development while preserving its quality of life.
The Route 17K study recommended the preparation of a Generic Environmental Impact Statement that would:
- establish environmental thresholds for future projects;
- amend the town”™s zoning code to include “visionary zoning” for the corridor to secure federal and state infrastructure funding;
- develop site marketing materials to help build and enhance relationships with site selectors and commercial Realtors; and
- tidentify companies in New York City and other regional locations in the Northeast that could potentially connect to the targeted sectors in the town.
The study does not include any parcels within the village of Montgomery”™s boundary.
Maureen Halahan, president and CEO of the Orange County Partnership, recommended that the town of Montgomery maintain and protect its rural/agricultural areas and to create two economic development zones ”” one around the airport and another on 17K ”” which will permit commercial development.
“We did recommend that warehousing is allowed around the airport as of right and in meeting performance standards on the 17K corridor ”¦ we recommended they do away with their spot, strip and split zoning, and to list the business types in favor of full parcel zoning and a simplified list of permitted land uses,” Halahan said.
“It”™s up to the town board to ensure those recommendations are included in the comprehensive plan and later adopted in some fashion in the zoning.”
Amazon”™s warehouse is positioned to make the most of its proximity to New York Stewart International Airport, which has been short on passenger flights but saw an average of 3 million to 5 million tons of cargo a month being shipped out of the airport last year.
