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12/18/2019 06:00 AM“Our North Haven fulfillment center has the ability to ship hundreds of thousands of items a day,” said Rachael Lightly, Amazon Operations regional manager of external communications. “During our peak holiday season, fulfillment centers like this one can ship up to a million units a day.”
The fulfillment center, which is located at 415 Washington Avenue, sits on an 168-acre parcel of land that had been vacant for more than 15 years.
At 855,000 square feet, the North Haven building could hold 15 football fields within its walls. It was constructed using 11,704 tons of structural steel and 62,764 cubic yards of concrete. And it features 10 miles of conveyor belts and the like and more than 100 miles of wiring and cable, according to Lightly.
The center has been more than a boon for those hoping for speedy delivery of holiday gifts.
“We’ve taken a totally vacant site and, through Amazon, have restored it to a vibrant campus that was once the Pratt & Whitney site,” said First Selectman Michael Freda.
The Amazon facility has benefited the town and surrounding region in a myriad of ways, according to Freda. One example includes through job creation.
“Our North Haven fulfillment center currently employs more than 2,000 full-time employees,” said Lightly. “In addition to our more than 300,000 full- and part-time, permanent operations employees, we have hired more than 200,000 seasonal employees across the U.S. in fulfillment and transportation operations this holiday season.”
Amazon employees work side-by-side with robotic technology that allows them to fill orders more quickly than similar centers in the U.S. without this equipment.
“We’re able to fulfill holiday orders because we’ve built out our network for over 20 years,” said Lightly, “a network that’s powered by incredible permanent and seasonal employees and state-of-the-art technology like Amazon Robotics, to supercharge fast delivery, increase efficiency, and improve workplaces around the world.”
Amazon Robotics helps the facility in North Haven “pick, pack, and ship smaller customer orders, such as books, toys, electronics, and personal care items,” adds Lightly.
The company has increased its presence in Connecticut, with the North Haven facility being its second fulfillment center. The other center is located in Windsor. It also has a sortation center (where staff sorts orders by destination and consolidates them onto trucks) in Wallingford, a delivery station in Bristol, and an Amazon Air Hub in Hartford.
The Board of Selectmen in North Haven authorized local financial incentives for the project when it was first proposed, which included a seven-year phase-in on real estate and property taxes and a reduction in building permit fees.
The company has become one of the largest taxpayers for the Town of North Haven.
“Because of Amazon coming in and as a result of other economic development project, the influx of new tax dollars will continue to allow us to reinvest in the town,” said Freda. “We are able to do things like support education and public safety, to pave roads, to sustain the overall service model that we have in terms of services to the residents.
“And the influx of the total tax dollars, will allow me to maintain the same mill rate for years to come,” he added.
The Amazon project was supported by the state Department of Economic and Community Development through its First Five Plus program. This program allows companies who are eligible, to earn a variety of tax credits if certain job creation and capital investment milestones are reached.