FITCHBURG — Amazon is working with the city to open a warehouse it built a couple years ago on Intervale Road which has sat vacant and unused, planning to open the building as a “smaller” Amazon delivery center, mostly likely before the end of the year.
“The Amazon building is going to be operational,” said city Community Development & Planning Executive Director Liz Murphy. “They didn’t just move in (already) because they decided they wanted to build a small inspection house and maintenance building for (fixing delivery vehicles).”
“We expect that they will be moved in and operational by the time 2026 is over,” Murphy said.
“We are working with the city regarding a potential opening of a delivery station,” said Mike Murphy, Amazon regional PR manager, Field Communications Team – New England. Plans are in early stages and we’ll share more when we can.”
Amazon notes that delivery stations are smaller logistics facilities where packages are sorted and loaded into vans/vehicles for delivery to customers.
“They’ve indicated to us that that were going to be moving forward with occupying the space and running the operation out of there by late summer or fall,” said Mayor Sam Squailia.
“We’re very excited to see that building come alive and be able to provide those jobs,” Squailia said, though she said she was not given any estimate on how many people would be hired.
“It’s very exciting for us, having had this building sitting there vacant, it’s been a challenge for the city,” Squailia said. “We have an increased response to that building,” by police, she said, “people hanging around in the parking lot … often at night.”
Squailia said an agreement is in place with Amazon and GFI Partners, of Boston, which owns the building, to work on engineering design for Intervale Road including water and sewer lines and a sidewalk, which is being designed by city engineers.
The location on Intervale Road is a tricky spot for traffic, with cars often backed up there trying to enter onto Bemis Road just before it turns into John Fitch Highway, near the Nashua River crossing at the Duck Mill apartments. The other side is equally trick, where Intervale Road becomes a single lane under the railroad bridge on the other side. Neither outlet from that portion of town is designed for heavy traffic in delivery vehicles.
Squailia said that the plan is to revisit the traffic impact after about a year, at which time it would be clearer, just what needs to be done. But she said that the plan is to demolish a garage near the end of Intervale Road, near Bemis Road, which would open up the view there. And research is being done on the possibility of an alternating light system to be used at the railroad bridge at the other end of Intervale Road, where it passes under the railroad.
Grants are being sought to pay for some of the roadwork, particularly the redesign of the Bemis Road-Intervale Road intersection, Squailia said.
“We appreciate the collaboration with Amazon, GFI Partners an the city,” Squailia said.
The closeness to the railroad and to Fitchburg Airport were cited as reasons Amazon was attracted to the site, which is near the beginning of John Fitch Highway, when it was first proposed in 2020.
A Sentinel story at the time said the city had been told at that time that it would be would be operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week as an e-commerce distribution hub that would have between 50-100 employees and between 150-200 fleet drivers that would be making deliveries in the general area, Fitchburg’s former Executive Director of Community Development & Planning Tom Skwierawski said.
The 2020 article said that the city could expect on average about 14 tractor-trailer deliveries made each day to the facility. It was also cited at the time that a recently completed construction project that lengthened the runway at Fitchburg Airport to 5,001 feet and which made it so the airport could handle payloads up to four tons, would be useful for moving high-priority, time-sensitive freight. Also cited was the fact that the majority of the jobs created would pay at least $15 per hour and with full benefits.
Some workers were on the site last week, installing hangers.
Murphy added that Amazon still plans to build a maintenance facility, mainly to serve as a garage to keep the delivery vehicles in good repair, to add to the vacant warehouse on the site.
Expectations are high and the city is working with a workforce board to increase training for commercial driver’s licenses, Murphy said. She said while not all delivery drivers may need a CDL, some would need it.
Original article
Comments