BAZETTA TOWNSHIP, Ohio – Documents filed last month with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency show that a proposed 15,000-square-foot distribution center on Perkins-Jones Road NE would be a delivery facility associated with online retail giant Amazon.
According to a site concept plan prepared July 9 by Progressive AE, an engineering and architecture firm based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the project calls for the construction of a DGF2 delivery station on 66.2 acres, equipped with 341 parking spaces for employees, managers and visitors.
Among them are three places for managers at “AMZL” – an abbreviation for Amazon Logistics, as the concept map shows. In addition, another 46 places are reserved for “DSP” managers. DSP is an acronym for Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners. The Delivery Service Partner program allows independent companies to work as Amazon drivers, according to Amazon’s website.
The proposed parking lot, which will be parallel to Perkins-Jones at the southern end of the property, will provide an additional 193 employee parking spaces, three visitor parking spaces and an additional 96 “private parking spaces for delivery trucks,” the document shows.
In addition to the employee parking lot, the proposed project includes 1,003 parking spaces for delivery trucks on the north and east sides of the site, as the map shows.
The proposed site plan also shows a schematic of a predominantly rectangular delivery center perpendicular to Perkins-Jones and the front parking lot. The plan also shows locations such as “employee staging areas,” bike rack spaces, and rideshare shelters.
In May, township trustees announced plans to build a $30 million delivery station at the site, then known only as “Project Penguin.” Although trustees disclosed the name of the developer, they did not reveal the project’s end user due to nondisclosure agreements.
Michael Hovis, Bazetta Township trustee, said he was not aware of any documents indicating that the project was one of Amazon’s delivery sites. “I haven’t heard anything about that,” he said.
The trustee told the Business Journal in May that the project would create at least 120 full-time jobs.
Hovis said the developer, Ambrose Property Group, chose the site because of its proximity to the intersection of State Route 82. “There will definitely be some jobs created and with the infrastructure, hopefully the industrial area there will expand,” he said.
The sewer would extend 2,100 feet to serve residents along Perkins-Jones and the new development, he said. “We’re just waiting for EPA approval,” Hovis said, noting he would like to start work sometime in mid-September or early October. Infrastructure costs would be covered by developer Ambrose Group.
The developer has also submitted permit applications for the wetlands on the site east of the former Kmart distribution center.
Indianapolis-based Ambrose Property Group boasts of having Amazon as one of its major clients, according to previous news reports. In August, Walsh Construction worked with Ambrose Property Group on a 7,400-square-foot warehouse in Wisconsin for Amazon’s last-mile delivery program. Ambrose also reportedly helped develop plans for a new Amazon facility near Terre Haute, Indiana, announced earlier this year.
According to the company’s website, Ambrose – an industrial, logistics and e-commerce real estate company founded in 2008 – has completed $1.2 billion worth of industrial projects in major U.S. markets.
A spokeswoman for Ambrose Property Group said they could not provide any further information about the Bazetta project.
“Ambrose cannot provide any additional information beyond that provided publicly,” the company said in a statement.
The Bazetta Center would be the second brick-and-mortar Amazon delivery location in the Mahoning Valley. In 2019, Amazon opened its first delivery location – a 45,000-square-foot warehouse in North Jackson in the Youngstown Commerce Park.
Pictured above: The site of a proposed distribution center in Bazetta Township.
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