Amazon Leases Warehouse Complex in Brisbane

Amazon.com has leased a 345,000-square-foot industrial complex in Brisbane, a deal that underscores the Bay Area’s importance in the e-commerce company’s warehouse network despite canceling or delaying plans to open new facilities.

Seattle-based Amazon took two adjacent warehouses, one totaling 268,000 square feet and the other 77,000 square feet, at 3745 and 3785 Bayshore Boulevard. It plans to use the larger building at 3745 Bayshore for its warehouse operations and the structure next door strictly for parking, a company spokesperson confirmed.

The complex spans 15 acres and includes 355 vehicle spaces, according to title service records and its online marketing brochure.

The new lease more than doubles Amazon’s industrial presence in Brisbane, a city of nearly 5,000 residents on San Francisco’s southern border. The company already operates a 219,000-square-foot warehouse for its grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh, about two miles north of the Bayshore Boulevard site.

Property owner Prologis describes 3745 Bayshore in online marketing materials as the largest standalone distribution warehouse in San Francisco and San Mateo counties. The building consists of a single-story warehouse with a two-level, 46,000-square-foot office wing and is less than two miles from on and off ramps to Highway 101. It was last occupied by The RealReal, a San Francisco-based luxury consignment startup that vacated it last year.

A representative of San Francisco-based Prologis said the industrial landlord doesn’t comment on customers’ plans. Prologis’ Amy Pallas, Avison Young’s Randy Keller and Cushman & Wakefield’s Matt Squires are the listing brokers for 3745 and 3785 Bayshore. Neither Keller nor Squires responded to requests for comment. Squires lists the complex’s rent as negotiable on Cushman’s website.

The deal is Amazon’s largest industrial lease in the Bay Area since a 708,000-square-foot agreement in Richmond in the first quarter of 2020. It’s a reminder that the region remains among the company’s primary markets as it tries to eliminate excess space across its U.S. fulfillment and transportation networks. Amazon executives said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call that it would scale back its warehouse pipeline, disclosing that excess space had created $2 billion in additional costs between the first quarters of 2021 and 2022.

Amazon had canceled or delayed the opening of 49 U.S. delivery centers representing more than 50 million square feet of warehouse space as of August, the Mercury News reported at the time. That included nine in California totaling more than 4 million square feet, the publication said, citing data from logistics consultant MWPVL International.

The company has been more of a sublessor than a lessee or property buyer in the Bay Area this year, finding takers for three East Bay facilities totaling more than 900,000 square feet. It paused work on a proposed warehouse in San Francisco in March after the city’s board of supervisors approved legislation that put an 18-month moratorium on new package delivery services there. Those moves suggest Amazon is scaling back expansion plans in the Bay Area, but its Brisbane lease shows it’s still willing to commit to large blocks of space when the right opportunity arises.