When Amazon moved in to the City of Tracy last year and started the construction of the company's distribution and fulfillment center, it was only a matter of time before an expansion would follow. The city is looking to stop the migration of jobs to the Bay Area by building what they will hope is the largest business park in California. The city will be using the name recognition of Amazon and Prologis, the largest industrial developer in the world to attract more companies to the area in what will be a 30 million square feet of commercial, general office and business park development on 1,700 acres.
The Amazon center is 1.2 million square feet employing hundreds of people bringing in badly needed tax revenues to the city. And although the complex is very large, the center is highly automated, requiring a small number of manpower relative to its size. However, the new development is expected to increase the number of jobs by a considerable amount.
According to the city, the development has attracted several companies, one of which is willing to setup a large facility on a 100 acre lot for call center and a fulfillment center designed to consolidate multiple operations.
Prologis, owner, operator and developer of industrial logistic real estate, will have a vested development right on 1,200 of the 1,700 acre site. The company also owns 5 million acres in Tracy and it will be an invaluable asset in providing the city access to many world class tenants it needs to maintain this growth for the long run. Prologis specializes in developing High Throughput Distribution (HTD) facilities built for efficiency to maximize productivity and the delivery of products across different channels.
Online retailers are under pressure to deliver on the same-day-delivery business model. In order to achieve this objective, companies have to build multiple distribution centers around the country located strategically to make the deliveries possible. As the largest online retailer in the world, Amazon is continuing to invest in new facilities and automation technology. In addition to the Tracy location, the company has opened a 950,000 square-foot fulfillment center in San Bernardino, and a larger facility is slated to open in Patterson in the spring of 2014, giving California thousands of new jobs.