Amazon Non-Sort Facility

[Pete]

Amazon to open yet another huge distribution center in OKC

Mega online retailer Amazon is planning yet another huge facility in Oklahoma City, this time just over 1 million square feet.

New facility will be located next to existing Amazon Fulfillment Center

OKCTalk was first to report Amazon's Sortation Facility at SW 15th and Council in early 2017. In April of 2018, we also broke the news on their 2.5 million square foot Fulfillment Center near Will Rogers Airport which opened in 2019.

The latest facility will be immediately north of the current fulfillment center and will be a 'non-sort facility', one that handles large items bought through their website.

Similar Amazon warehouses of this type employ approximately 1,200 workers.

Plans call for a 2-level building along with over 1,000 parking spaces for employees and docks and storage for hundreds of trucks.

Non-sort facilities typically stock and ship items such as kayaks, kegorators, grills and all types of bulky products available for purchase on-line.

Amazon warehouses that stock smaller-sized objects rely heavily on small robots, which travel long distances in their multi-floor facilities and retrieve racks to workers who then retrieve items for boxing and shipping to the end customer.

Due to the size and weight of the objects in non-sort facilities, they rely heavily on Powered Industrial Equipment (P.I.T.) which are custom machines resembling traditional fork-lifts.

P.I.T. equipment in use

In similar Amazon facilities in other cities, after an item is retrieved it moves via conveyor belt to a massive custom boxing operation. Machines run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to create right-sized containers from huge sheets of cardboard.

Amazon boxing machine

Most items sent from the non-sort facility involve a pre-arranged scheduled delivery.

The Covid-19 pandemic has driven more consumers to buy products through the Internet and Amazon continues to grow. The world's largest retailer is expected to far outpace the $280 billion in revenue of 2019.

Oklahoma City provided Amazon $1.7 million in public incentives for the investment in the fulfillment center and the creation of approximately 1,800 jobs. Given that Amazon aggressively pursues incentives, expect a similar request for this latest project.

Rendering of proposed OKC facility

[SoonersFan12]

That will be good

[ChrisHayes]

Any time line?

[Pete]

Any time line?

My best guess is that it will take through the end of the year to agree on incentives and get the building permits issued.

Then, about a year to build.

[Martin]

i guess that means lariat landing is officially dead.

[Pete]

i guess that means lariat landing is officially dead.

Not at all. This is part of that development.

Any retail/commercial was always planned for the east side of Portland (shown in red below):

[Martin]

Not at all. This is part of that development.

Any retail/commercial was always planned for the east side of Portland (shown in red below):

ahhh... gotcha. thanks for the clarification!

[ChrisHayes]

I've been waiting for more development to be announced or begin at Lariat Landing. I thought for sure Amazon would spawn off more development with all the trucks and over a thousand people working in the area.

[Laramie]

OKC's Lariat Landing on 2,000 prime acres apart of Will Rogers World Airport Strategic Development Program will eventually attract more centers to the area. Our city needs to 'get ready' because the jobs will keep on coming... The non sort facility expected to employ up to 1,000.

[Snowman]

Not at all. This is part of that development.

Any retail/commercial was always planned for the east side of Portland (shown in red below):

Though it does seem a little odd that they are granting so much of the land with potential direct runway access for amazon, when it seems the land over by the rental car facilities would give similar access to the airport and freeways.

[mugofbeer]

Unless there is some potential Amazon could use that proximity for some sort of air freight facility in the future.

[PoliSciGuy]

Unless there is some potential Amazon could use that proximity for some sort of air freight facility in the future.

Bingo. Air freight has made a killing during this downturn, and OKC is centrally located if Amazon wanted to turn it into a minuhub. Also, I'd imagine those bulky non-sort items require flights sometimes to get where they need to be.

[mattbrafford]

Just for the record. I am reasonably certain that both Amazon facilities are in the "Aviation Support/Indirect Aviation" area. The two facilities do not have "direct" runway access currently.

[catch22]

the current facility is in the green area on the far left of the image. plenty of land available.

i don't think its especially imminent of amazon air - i track their air network quite extensively and the developments leading from it. a good portion of their facilities are located at or near airports. i think it's placing it so if their model changes to be more air reliant they are
located closeby. but otherwise they have beefed up their distribution network to have products close to all major cities and using air for when that doesn't work out. most items you order are within trucking distance

[ChrisHayes]

I know this is off topic, but there was a spec warehouse built near SW 44th and MacArthur. They started working on the inside of it and building out it's parking lots a number of months ago. I drove by today, and there was a homemade, plywood sign, and I believe it said "Amazon employees only" or something like that. Did Amazon end up leasing out this warehouse?

[Pete]

I know this is off topic, but there was a spec warehouse built near SW 44th and MacArthur. They started working on the inside of it and building out it's parking lots a number of months ago. I drove by today, and there was a homemade, plywood sign, and I believe it said "Amazon employees only" or something like that. Did Amazon end up leasing out this warehouse?

It's an Amazon delivery center:

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.p...46#post1133746

[Pete]

Amazon requesting a light at 74th and Portland and about halfway between 74th & 89th (shown in first image) for this new non-sort facility.

Graphics shows how the building will be placed; will take 1/2 a mile of frontage on Portland, as the building itself will be a larger footprint from the distribution to the south, but only 1 level as opposed to 4.