Schodack

After months with town officials and developers remaining tight-lipped on who would fill a 1 million-square-foot distribution center, Amazon was identified as the tenant Monday evening.

The revelation came during a Schodack Town Planning Board meeting where tenant representative Eric Murray confirmed Amazon is working with Scannell Properties - the Indiana developer of the project - to build a 1,015,740-square-foot space for a fulfillment center on 116 acres between Interstate 90 and Route 9.

It just so happens that many Amazon fulfillment centers built in recent years around the northeastern U.S. and in other states were built to that exact same specification: 1,015,740 square feet.

Amazon's fulfillment centers across the country have sprung up in similar fashion, with a developer proposing to build a 1- million-square-foot distribution center with an unknown tenant. Tax breaks are often sought as well, and the designs are similar in nature to the Schodack building designs produced by Scannell.

The Schodack project is already lined up with tax breaks through Rensselaer County and potentially New York state.

When contacted to inquire about the square footage of the project and how it matched up perfectly with other Amazon distribution centers, Scannell Properties spokeswoman Andrea Martone told the Times Union: "It's too premature in the process to comment. They just don't want us to comment."

Murray's admission of representing Amazon as the tenant for the distribution center was met with applause from the crowd that packed Schodack Town Hall, but it did little alleviate the concerns nearby residents have.

"If the project does go forward, Amazon is very careful to work with community partners," Murray said.

Amazon operates fulfillment centers that are the exact same size as the Schodack proposal in Fall River, Mass., Palmer Township, Pa., which is near Bethlehem, Pa., Middletown, Del., Baltimore, Spartanburg, S.C., and Redlands, Calif.

Another huge warehouse - again proposed for 1,015,740 square-feet - is in the planning stage in the Orange County town of Montgomery near Newburgh. Lawyers for that project have described it as hosting an "e-commerce" tenant, although they have not revealed if it is Amazon that they are referring to. The Montgomery warehouse plans were code-named Project Sailfish in plans submitted to the town.

Scannell's marketing materials show the distribution center broken up into either one large 910,000-square-foot building and a smaller building or four similarly sized buildings connected to by a road rotary in the middle.

Last week, the Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, which said it was keeping the prospective tenant under wraps, said it planned to offer the developer a 50 percent cut on its property taxes over a 10-year period, a deviation from its typical property tax incentive plan.

Scannell, the developer, says in its marketing brochures that the site will not only receive Rensselaer County IDA benefits but state incentives as well through Empire State Development, New York's economic development arm. Scannell has been involved in developing other sites for Amazon across the country.

"The numerous economic benefits of the site include a cooperative business-friendly community, various economic incentives from both Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency and Empire State Development, and minimal municipal economic impact fees," the brochure says.

Many of the residents who spoke in opposition to project as it's currently proposed pleaded with the Planning Board to call for a environmental impact study, which they said would ensure an unbiased assessment of the impact of the project to the area. Scannell has done its own assessments, but residents want more.

"If they're doing such a great job, they have nothing to lose in doing a Type 1 (Environmental Impact Study)," resident Barbara Spink said. "It's less about providing jobs, and more about a rich corporation making money off the rest of us."

Developers project the facility will create 800 full-time jobs with collective annual wages at $22 million. However, many of them would be at minimum wage, which residents say isn't going to economically infuse the community.

Amazon is proud of its fulfillment centers and actually offers tours of them to the public to show off the innovation that it uses inside. The company says it has 75 in North America with 125,000 employees.

Amazon also says the jobs pay 30 percent better than a traditional retail job, and job opening fliers for the Fall River, Mass., Amazon fulfillment center say that the jobs pay $12.75 to $13.25 an hour.

Other area residents are welcoming the project, saying that it's needed in a town that's seen little growth.

"By letting this project go forward, you're improving this town," Eric Leonard said. "It's a start - for some a very difficult start. I think in the very end it's going to lift everything up for the town."

Schodack is already home to a Hannaford supermarkets distribution center, so the town is viewed favorably as being able to handle the industry.

"Other distribution users find this corridor attractive because of its proximity to highways, tandem trailer access and a readily available labor force," the Scannell Properties brochure states.