Amazon is coming to Henrietta, but it's not HQ2

Amazon is coming to Monroe County, not with the much-sought-after HQ2, but a smaller delivery station.

The 70,000-square-foot facility is planned for 330 Clay Road in Henrietta, in the vicinity of Jefferson Road and Interstate 390. In size, it is a little more than half the size of the Pittsford Wegmans and roughly one-eighth the size of the "sortation center" announced last year for Lancaster, Erie County.

Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo announced the project during a news conference late Tuesday afternoon.

"It means jobs, jobs, jobs," Dinolfo said, calling the announcement "a huge win" for Monroe County.

Though she highlighted the jobs promise, how many jobs was not immediately clear. The project has only been in the works for about 45 days, when Amazon officials first visited, to the signing of a lease on Tuesday, said developer Frank Imburgia of FSI General Contractors.

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He referred job questions to Amazon officials other than calling the number "significant." As for when the facility might open, he said: "They are very aggressive and want to get this opened as soon as possible."

He said it could be up-and-running in the next 120 to 160 days.

Imburgia described the role of the delivery station as going the last mile. It is the first-of-its-kind facility in upstate New York, while the Lancaster facility has been touted as the first distribution center upstate, and only second in New York state.

"They want to get more of these procurement centers open as fast as possible," Imburgia said. "...The people at Amazon are very amicable people, they're nice people. It was a pleasure to work with them."

Imburgia said the project already has all the necessary town approvals to move forward.

In addition to the facility itself, the delivery station could provide opportunities for delivery drivers through the Amazon "Flex" program, in which private contractors can make up to $25 an hour delivering packages.

"These are real jobs for real families and real results for the people who live in the county of Monroe," Dinolfo said. Both Dinolfo and Imburgia declined to say how many jobs Amazon has promised to create.

The Rochester-Buffalo region had pursued Amazon, hoping to land its second North American headquarters. It was not immediately clear whether the community's pitch — which included more than $700 million in local tax breaks — played a role in securing the Henrietta facility.

Imburgia said it came down to the county and Henrietta showing they could move quickly on the project. And Dinolfo said the county stood ready to assist the project, saying "there certainly will be some investment" by the county, which officials later clarified would be a standard incentive package.

"This has got our full attention, as you might imagine," she said. "Our whole team will be working on it."

The potential tax incentives will be negotiated and voted upon by Imagine Monroe, the relaunched version of the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency. Those proceedings are open to the public.

FSI is behind the construction of projects across Monroe County, including the Three Heads Brewing building in Rochester's Neighborhood of the Arts, the renovation of the Rochester Dome Arena in Henrietta, and the soon-to-open Chick-fil-A on West Ridge Road in Greece.

Dinolfo said the county would share more details about the project as they became available. "It would certainly be premature to talk about what that actually looks like," she said.

She said this project creates local "momentum" and that other companies "will want to be in on that action" after seeing a company like Amazon commit to operations in Monroe County.

BDSHARP@Gannett.com

WCLEVELAND@Gannett.com