Loveland verifies Amazon project underway
The city of Loveland, in concert with Amazon.com and Trammell Crow Co., has acknowledged publicly for the first time that an Amazon fulfillment center is under construction in east Loveland near the Northern Colorado Regional Airport.
Bizwest previously reported that Amazon had purchased the property at 6425 Byrd Drive and that dirt work on the site appeared to be beginning.
On Tuesday, the city said in a news release that Amazon had “signed a development agreement to build a sortable fulfillment center in Loveland. In the planned, more than 600,000-square-foot facility, Amazon employees will pick, pack, and ship customer orders such as books, toys, and housewares.”
Kelly Jones, economic development director for the city, said the company was comfortable with releasing the 600,000-square-foot size, but the project is subject to change and could grow larger.
The news release also said such facilities can employ more than 1,000 people. People who have seen site plans told Bizwest that as many as 1,800 parking spots for employees may be under consideration.
On Monday, signs for Ryan Companies U.S. Inc. appeared at the construction site. Ryan, a Minneapolis company with a southwest U.S. office in Phoenix, built a 2.3 million-square-foot Amazon AR Sort Fulfillment Center in Tucson, which was completed in May 2019.
“It has been a pleasure working with Amazon and Trammell Crow these past 18 months,” Jones said. “The announcement shows a long-term investment in Loveland and the surrounding region leveraging our community’s businessfriendly climate and diverse talent pool.”
Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $5.5 billion in Colorado, including infrastructure and compensation to employees, and created more than 20,000 fulland part-time jobs, the news release said.
“While this project is in its early stages, we are excited about being closer to our customers, the potential to bring new jobs with great pay and benefits to the area, and our ability to work with the city of Loveland to continue our investment in the state of Colorado,” said Ryan Wilson, Amazon’s senior manager, economic development and public policy.
The decision by Amazon to locate a distribution and fulfillment center comes after the Loveland City Council approved the annexation and rezoning of 152 acres of land at the end of Byrd Drive, which will be extended through the site.
“City departments and divisions including economic development, development services, traffic, utilities and fire, along with developer Trammell Crow worked together with Amazon to facilitate the details of the fulfillment center and assist with property annexation, site planning and development needs. No incentives were used as part of the deal,” the news release said.
“The city of Loveland has been a welcoming partner in this new development known as Loveland Commerce Park,” said Bill Mosher, senior managing director of Trammell Crow
Co.’s Denver Business Unit. “The city clearly identified its priorities and requirements to assure that we could effectively respond with a high-quality asset on the I-25 corridor.”
Mayor Jacki Marsh welcomed the development.
“We welcome Amazon’s expansion in Loveland with one of the largest economic development projects we have seen. We realize that Amazon had a wide array of choices on where to locate, and we are honored that they chose our city,” she said. “Amazon’s investment in Loveland will be transformative. I applaud the hard work of our many city teams who worked with Trammell Crow and Amazon to make this project a reality for our community.”