Amazon.com is opening a
delivery station in Grimes that will employ hundreds who prepare packages
headed to customers’ doors, the company announced in November.
The delivery station,
the final stop for an order before being delivered to customers, is expected to
open in 2020, according to a news release issued by the company.
“It’s one
of the largest companies in the world,” Grimes City Administrator Jake
Anderson said. “We’re pleased they’ve chosen Grimes.”
The
announcement is not a surprise.
Six weeks ago,
Amazon posted an opening for a job that would be located in Grimes. In early
November, the company began posting jobs for logistics and delivery managers,
all positions for a Grimes site and all associated with delivery stations.
But while
Amazon has announced its presence in Grimes, the Seattle-based retail giant
remains mum about any ties to the construction of a fulfillment center in
Bondurant on about 165 acres east of U.S. Highway 65 and north of Northeast
62nd Avenue.
The $250
million Bondurant project includes a five-story, 780,000-square-foot
warehouse/distribution/fulfillment center and more than 2,000 parking spaces.
The project, with specs similar to those of other Amazon fulfillment centers,
is expected to create at least 1,100 jobs, most of which will pay $15 an hour.
David Maahs,
executive vice president of economic development for the Greater Des Moines
Partnership, said the development builds on Central Iowa’s tech scene.
“Amazon’s Grimes delivery station will create hundreds of full-
and part-time jobs and further solidify Greater Des Moines as a place where
technology-focused companies look to build and grow. Logistics is a key
industry in Greater Des Moines, and this project shows that the region is a
prime spot for companies to build distribution centers and warehouses.”
Brian
Buethe, president and CEO of Grimes Chamber & Economic Development, said
Amazon appears to have locked up the whole building.
“It is my understanding that they have leased the entire building, but I
do not know how long of a term,” Buethe said.
An Amazon
representative said the company wouldn’t have any further comment “at this
time.”
Amazon often opens delivery stations near its fulfillment centers,
Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL International Inc., told the Business Record in
November.
Typically,
delivery stations handle an average of 40,000 packages a day that are delivered
within a 30- to 50-mile radius, Wulfraat said. The packages are delivered to
the station either from a regional sorting or fulfillment center or from a
nearby airport.
The Grimes delivery station would be Amazon’s third in Iowa. Last
month the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that the online retailer planned to open a delivery station in Iowa
City. Amazon is leasing the 346,062-square-foot former Procter & Gamble
distribution center in southeast Iowa City.
Amazon
operates an 18,000-square-foot delivery station that opened in 2018 in North
Liberty.
Overall, the company operates 158 fulfillment centers in the United
States that occupy more than 14.4 million square feet, according to MWPVL International, a supply chain and logistics consulting firm that follows Amazon. The
retailer has plans to open at least 12 other delivery stations in the coming
months, according to MWPVL.
Amazon’s
Grimes delivery station will be located in the Grimes Distribution #5 facility,
a Hubbell Realty Co. property located at 1301 S.E. Gateway Drive. A Hubbell spokeswoman referred questions about the amount of space
Amazon is leasing in the building and terms of the lease to Amazon, who did not
respond.
Construction
of the $8 million facility was completed this fall. The building, with 32-foot
clear height ceilings, is adjacent to Iowa Highway 141.
The Amazon
release said the station would “create hundreds of full- and part-time
jobs starting at $15 per hour.” The spokesperson did not respond to a
request for more details about job figures.
Wulfraat has said the stations typically employee between 200 and 400
people. In August, Hubbell representatives asked the Grimes
City Council for additional parking around the building because a tenant needed
800 spaces. The council approved the request.
Anderson
said he expected the delivery station to spur more service and hospitality
businesses to open in Grimes.
He said he
didn’t expect the delivery station to adversely affect traffic in Grimes. He
said information provided by Amazon showed that about every 30 minutes, 20
vehicles would be arriving at or leaving the station.
In the past
three or so years, Amazon has ramped up its delivery services as it has moved
toward providing next-day deliveries. To do that, the company needs fulfillment
centers and delivery stations near its customers.
