The first Amazon robots are moving into Thornton by August 2018 as part of the Seattle retailer’s expansion in Colorado. The company said Monday it will open its third facility in Colorado and hire 1,500 full-time workers.
The new warehouse, a three-story 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center at the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and East 144th Avenue, will handle smaller items such as books, electronics and toys. This will speed up delivery for customers but, according to a spokeswoman, does not mean Denver-area shoppers are any closer to two-hour delivery as part of Amazon Prime Now.
“This facility is separate from Prime Now and will handle amazon.com orders,” said Ashley Robinson, an Amazon spokeswoman. “What this Amazon Robotics fulfillment center means is that Prime members can expect faster delivery on a greater variety of items, as compared to what they experience now in which their orders are originating in other states, such as Arizona, Texas and Kansas.”
A previously announced Amazon fulfillment in Aurora will handle larger items more than 18 inches in diameter, such as TVs, patio furniture and boxes of diapers. The company also opened a sortation center last year in Aurora, which receives packages from other Amazon warehouses, sorts them by ZIP code and then delivers them to local post offices.
But the new Thornton facility is special — it will be the first in Colorado to use robots that will work alongside humans to help pick and pack items shipped to Colorado shoppers. According to a recent Bloomberg story, Amazon’s robots do the majority of the travel and work while the human patrols the area.
“A robotics fulfillment center enables us to hold 50 percent more inventory than a similar building without robotics — so millions and millions of items on-hand, and it enables the customer’s order to be fulfilled within minutes versus hours. Of course with a site being in a customer’s backyard, there is less time needed to ship the item as well,” Robinson said.
Construction on the Thornton space is expected to start this month and take 14 months to complete. The bulk of the 2.4 million-square-foot facility on 80 acres will be used to fulfill orders by workers making about $30,000 and receive benefits, retirement and stock options (Amazon has not yet posted the jobs, but in other cities, fulfillment workers make about $12 an hour.) About 60,000 square feet will be set aside for about 100 office jobs, where salaries could be about $80,000, said Adam Krueger, Thornton’s assistant director of economic development.
Since the property hasn’t been developed, there is no physical address yet, he added. But it sits just north of the Cabela’s shopping center and is across I-25 from Orchard Town Center. A future outlet mall is planned to the south of Cabela’s.
Amazon will anchor Thornton’s employment center in the north. But Amazon did not receive any financial incentives to locate in Thornton, Krueger said. Instead, Amazon could qualify for tax credits because the area is part of a Colorado Enterprise Zone, which offers businesses that locate there a plethora of tax credits, including $1,100 for each new job created, 3 percent for equipment purchases and job-training credits of up to 12 percent on certain training costs.
“The (incentives) were not from the city, but they (Amazon) are moving into an enterprise zone so there are tax credits they can take advantage of,” said Krueger, who traveled to Seattle a few months ago to check out a similar Amazon facility to help determine its impact on traffic and infrastructure. “But while we didn’t provide a direct incentive to Amazon, there are city infrastructure improvements they will benefit from, like the widening of Washington Street.”
Amazon seemed to balk at expanding in Colorado for years as a protest of the state’s complex sales tax system, where the state attempted to get online retailers to collect different sales tax rates by city. But the retailer came around in February 2017 and began charging separate sales tax rates to customers living in different cities.
And soon after, it announced the sortation center, which opened in June 2016. The Aurora fulfillment center for larger items is expected to open later this year.
“The fulfillment center in Aurora is still under construction and we have not begun hiring for that building’s hourly workforce. And we have some open roles at the sortation center interested candidates can apply for; check out the website,” said Ashley Robinson, an Amazon spokeswoman. “Our goal is to serve a large region of customers, as well as the entire country. We are excited to be part of both the Aurora and Thornton communities.”
Last month, Amazon announced that AmazonFresh, the e-commerce giant’s grocery delivery service, is now available in the Denver area. For an extra $14.99 a month, Amazon Prime members can get unlimited free delivery of grocery orders totaling $40 or more. Same-day and next-day delivery is available.
Amazon also has filed building permits for a distribution center in Boulder.
The company has been rapidly expanding its online shopping empire. Since January, Amazon has announced that it will open at least 17 fulfillment centers in the U.S., each employing about 1,000 workers.
