Amazon to Launch Fulfillment Center Next Year

RICHMOND, TX—Construction is underway on an Amazon fulfillment center, with plans to launch operations next year, according to Trammell Crow Company and Amazon. The building, located on 93.5 acres at 10507 Harlem Rd., will have an 850,000-square-foot footprint.

“Significant planning has gone into this facility’s design, which allows for extensive use of robotics to further enhance Amazon’s robust fulfillment capabilities,” said Jeremy Garner, a principal with Trammell Crow Company.

At the new fulfillment center, employees will work alongside Amazon robotics to pick, pack and ship small items to customers such as books, electronics and toys in order to fulfill orders even more efficiently. Amazon robots travel to various locations in these fulfillment centers to pick up mobile shelves of product and deliver them to associates who are working at ergonomic work stations.

When the Amazon robot arrives, the associates pick items off of shelves or stow them. Those items will then get packed and shipped to customers. There are also robots that help lift pallets of products to different floors of the fulfillment center to help move inventory around at quicker speeds, as well as robots that palletize products for the next stage of fulfillment, GlobeSt.com learns.

“We’re delighted to continue our growth and investment in Texas, with our new fulfillment center in Richmond,” said Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of global customer fulfillment. “This new fulfillment center will create more than 1,000 new full-time jobs, in addition to the more than 20,000 current employees across the state, who receive industry-leading pay and benefits starting on day one.”

On top of Amazon’s minimum wage starting at $15, the company offers full-time employees comprehensive benefits including full medical, vision and dental insurance as well as a 401(k) with 50% match starting on day one. The company also offers up to 20 weeks of maternal and parental paid leave and innovative benefits such as Leave Share and Ramp Back, which give new parents flexibility with their growing families.

In addition, Amazon has pledged to invest more than $700 million to provide upskilling training for 100,000 US employees for in-demand jobs. Programs will help Amazonians from all backgrounds access training to move into highly skilled roles across the company’s corporate offices, tech hubs, fulfillment centers, retails stores and transportation network, or pursue career paths outside of Amazon.

“We’re proud that Amazon has chosen Fort Bend County for this significant investment,” adds KP George, Fort Bend County judge. “The Fort Bend fulfillment center will generate 1,000 high-quality jobs for our community, adding tremendous value to our commercial sector. The Fort Bend Economic Development Council and the county have worked diligently with Amazon to successfully implement this major project.”

Ware Malcomb is the project’s architect of record, while Graycor Construction Company Inc. is serving as the general contractor. Engineering partners on the project include HSA & Associates, Langan Engineering and Jordon & Skala Engineers. The Harrington Group Inc. is providing fire protection design.

Tony Patronella and Jeanie Gibbs with Read King represented the seller of the development site. Stephen Schneidau of Cushman & Wakefield and Matt O’Brien of KBC Advisors represented the land purchaser.

Houston has the fourth largest US development pipeline with 18 million square feet under construction and 49% of it preleased, according to a report by Avison Young. Amazon had major leasing activity in the first quarter 2020 with largest lease signed, 443,520 square feet in Building 1 in Park 249 at 16225 Tomball Pkwy., and Amazon also broke ground earlier in the first quarter with its new 806,000-square-foot facility in Clay 99 Business Park.

“The fundamentals for the industrial asset class remain solid,” says Drew Coupe, vice president, industrial tenant representation with Avison Young. “Expect Houston’s industrial sector to maintain confidence in the market’s consistently low vacancy rate and the constant demand of e-commerce to satisfy the metro’s population growth.”