Amazon Plotting Humongous Warehouse in Hudson Valley

A massive Amazon distribution center could reshape the industrial landscape of New York’s Hudson Valley.

An applicant tied to the e-commerce giant submitted plans for a 3.2 million-square-foot facility near Exit 27 of the state Thruway, the Albany Business Review reported. The proposed development in the town of Florida would be more than four stories tall and exceed 100 feet high.

The project, dubbed MSV1, would be built on Route 5S in Florida, at a site previously approved in 2019 for a 1 million-square-foot warehouse by Winstanley Enterprises. The limited liability company applicant, which shares an address with Bluewater Property Group, is seeking to amend the earlier approval to accommodate the significantly larger facility.

The warehouse would include advanced robotics and innovative design principles like gravity-assisted material handling equipment on its upper floors. The facility would be optimized for robotic bin storage systems and operate around the clock to process orders for local delivery centers.

The development would create at least 750 full-time positions across three daily shifts, in addition to part-time and seasonal jobs; a smaller facility in nearby Schodack employs more workers, a sign of the automated times.

Ken Rose, director of the Montgomery County Business Development Center, told the outlet he anticipates the developer will apply for tax benefits from the county’s industrial development agency.

Montgomery County is already home to a 1.9 million-square-foot Target distribution center, which is across the way from where Amazon wants to build. The county also has several smaller warehouses, including one for Dollar General.

The industrial vacancy rate in the Albany region fell to 4.1 percent during the second half of last year, according to CBRE Upstate NY, down a full percentage point from the first half of the year. That rate is nowhere near the bottom, though, as the region’s vacancy rate was below 1 percent in the second half of 2023.

— Holden Walter-Warner