Well, Amazon's going to build something in the Rochester area after all: a 70,000 square foot fulfillment center. It'll be located in an existing building at 330 Clay Road in Henrietta and it'll be the first facility of its kind in Upstate.
Developer Frank Imburgia, whose company owns the building, said during a late afternoon press conference that the company signed a lease for the space today. He said the whole deal happened in 45 days thanks to the expeditious work of Henrietta Supervisor Stephen Schultz and staff at the town.
Imburgia said the company wants to use the center as a hub for so-called last-mile delivery, and it could mean that local Amazon customers get their orders faster.
And those are about all the details that anyone at the press conference, which was held in Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo's office, had to share. Neither Imburgia, nor Dinolfo, nor the county's economic development director Jeff Adair had any specifics on the number of jobs the project might create, or what kind of jobs it might create. Dinolfo said the project will get some sort of tax incentive package, but the board of Imagine Monroe (the new name for the county industrial development agency) will work all of that out.
The project is a big win for Monroe County, Dinolfo said during the press conference.
"It means jobs, jobs, jobs," she said.
Amazon, however, has been criticized for working conditions in its distribution and fulfillment centers and the wages it pays the warehouse employees. And a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-aligned think-tank, called the economic development benefits of Amazon fulfillment centers into question.
Developer Frank Imburgia, whose company owns the building, said during a late afternoon press conference that the company signed a lease for the space today. He said the whole deal happened in 45 days thanks to the expeditious work of Henrietta Supervisor Stephen Schultz and staff at the town.
Imburgia said the company wants to use the center as a hub for so-called last-mile delivery, and it could mean that local Amazon customers get their orders faster.
And those are about all the details that anyone at the press conference, which was held in Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo's office, had to share. Neither Imburgia, nor Dinolfo, nor the county's economic development director Jeff Adair had any specifics on the number of jobs the project might create, or what kind of jobs it might create. Dinolfo said the project will get some sort of tax incentive package, but the board of Imagine Monroe (the new name for the county industrial development agency) will work all of that out.
The project is a big win for Monroe County, Dinolfo said during the press conference.
"It means jobs, jobs, jobs," she said.
Amazon, however, has been criticized for working conditions in its distribution and fulfillment centers and the wages it pays the warehouse employees. And a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-aligned think-tank, called the economic development benefits of Amazon fulfillment centers into question.
