CHARLTON — Five floors, nearly 5,000 robots, over 1,000 employees.
These are the key numbers that will move packages through Amazon’s new 260,000-square-foot, 60,000-square-foot distribution center, which is scheduled to begin operations in the coming months on a hill near Route 20.
Although construction was in full swing Tuesday morning to complete the final work needed to launch the distribution center, city and municipal officials, along with Amazon representatives, walked in hard hats and safety vests to tour the massive building.
Among them was City Administrator Andrew M. Golas, who witnessed the process from the beginning when it was introduced in 2021.
“This will hopefully lead to tremendous economic growth along Route 20,” Golas said. “Our city is growing and I think this is the first big step.”
“From the beginning, when the first few trucks showed up on site and started moving some earth and then the structure was pulled up … it looked like a giant spaceship that had landed in the middle of the city.”
More specifically, according to an Amazon spokesperson, 1.3 million cubic meters of earth were moved and about 75,000 cubic meters of concrete were used in the construction – more than in the construction of the Empire State Building.
Also on the property are two 250,000-gallon tanks that Amazon has placed outside the building to serve as a water supply in the event of a fire.
According to plans, the building will have 49 loading docks, 265 trailer parking spaces and 1,250 car parking spaces and will generate approximately 4,000 vehicle trips per day.
The full opening is planned for the holiday season. The top four floors of the building will use Amazon Robotics technology to select, package and ship products to local delivery centers.
The ground floor is used for loading and unloading trucks.
The distribution center is located on a 96-acre site at 53 Sturbridge Road.
“When we add facilities,” says Jonathan Greeley, economic development manager at Amazon, “it just increases product variety and gets products to customers faster.”
“The aim of this regionalisation drive is to ensure that the product is available here so that people can order it and that we have stocks close to our customers.”
In January, an Amazon spokesperson said the distribution center being built on the former Greendale Mall site in Worcester is also expected to open this year. The building is estimated to be 11,000 square feet in size.
