Land has been purchased and site work has started on a 132 acre tract on the northeast corner of SW 15th and Council Road.
The property and building permit are in the name of Industrial Developers of Oklahoma of Tulsa which acquired the land earlier in 2017 for $1.5 million. The building permit value is listed at $12 million but does not include furniture, fixtures and equipment.
OKCTalk has learned from reliable sources this property will be leased back to Amazon and in fact the name on the permits reads “sorting facility”. Amazon is not specifically named on the plans which is typical of their real estate dealings.
On February 2nd, the State of Oklahoma announced an agreement whereby the internet powerhouse would start collecting sales tax on transactions made through its site and forward them accordingly. Besides the state coffers, Oklahoma’s cites, towns and counties will benefit from the move. The collections will begin on March 1.
It is unclear if the start of this project – the first physical Amazon presence in the state – is related, but the timing is closely correlated.
In 2014, Amazon announced plans to create sortation facilities which differs from a fulfillment center. Packages delivered to the sorting center will already be in sealed boxes, which employees will organize by zip code and forward to the U.S. Postal Service.
Fulfillment centers tend to be much larger, in the neighborhood of 1 million square feet and serve as warehouses for thousands of Amazon items with on-line orders being assembled and shipped via a massive shelf and conveyor system.
The addition of a sortation facility in a market typically shaves almost a day off the delivery time and Amazon may at a future date use other transportation methods for the “last mile” of delivery, an industry term for the final leg of logistics to the direct consumer.
Most Amazon sort facilities employ 100 to 300 workers.
Our sources also indicate that Amazon is close to leasing 80,000 square feet for a small fulfillment center in Oklahoma City.
City staff have confirmed communication with a real estate broker who was believed to be representing Amazon in the marketplace.
