Logistics expert: Proposed warehouse in Bremerton is 'definitely' Amazon delivery facility

BREMERTON — Could Amazon be setting up shop in Bremerton? An international logistics expert who has studied the company for years thinks so.

A proposed 117,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center on Bree Drive near the Port of Bremerton has all the signs of an Amazon delivery station, according to Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL International, a logistics consulting firm based in Canada.

Wulfraat has followed the growth of Amazon for over a decade, and his firm tracks the company’s global supply chain, including the different kinds of buildings the company uses for distribution.

Based on the size and design of the warehouse, its large number of parking spaces for vans and trucks, and the company’s rapid buildout of similar buildings across the country, Wulfraat is confident the project meets all the requirements for an Amazon delivery facility.

“It’s definitely a delivery station,” Wulfraat said.

Amazon has not confirmed if it plans to build a delivery station in Kitsap and did not respond to a request for comment. The developer on the project, Panattoni Development Co., also did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Kitsap Sun.

The project is proposed on 30 acres of land east of Highway 3 and just northeast of Bremerton National Airport. That property was purchased this week by ALM Bremerton LLC, an entity registered to USAA Real Estate Company with an address in San Antonio, Texas.

Just who exactly will be occupying that space is still a mystery, however, and city officials haven’t been quick to offer an explanation. Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler declined to reveal the tenant but did say the project would bring “up to 200 jobs” to the city.

“This is a commitment I made to the people of Bremerton to promote, recruit, market, pave the way and to get those jobs here, and this is going to be a good one,” Wheeler said.

In a site plan review application filed with the city, the warehouse is described as “similar to a FedEx or UPS facility.” Plans call for a concrete building with exterior dock doors for truck-loading and additional overhead doors to load vans, 12,000 square feet of office space, and more than 950 parking stalls for vans. Panattoni estimated in its application that the project would generate about 965 daily vehicle trips on weekdays.

Those specs match other Amazon delivery stations around the country, including several cities in New York and Salem, Oregon. The average delivery station is around 112,000 square feet, according to MWPVL’s numbers — much smaller than Amazon’s fulfillment centers, which often measure into millions of square feet. Amazon already operates similar-sized delivery centers in South Seattle, Everett and Renton.

The way the project is designed would allow for vans to pull up alongside the warehouse, load packages, and exit via a different road, Wulfraat said. The property is right next to Highway 3 and just north of Bremerton National Airport.

The project’s developer, Panattoni — which describes itself as one of the largest industrial developers in the world — is also involved in the planning of a 3.6 million-square-foot facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, that has been linked to Amazon.

Delivery stations are designed for “last mile delivery.” Packages from larger Amazon facilities arrive there on trucks and are assigned to a van route that takes them to the customer.

As Amazon has expanded, the company’s focus has shifted to delivering its own packages rather than relying on a third party to do it, Wulfraat said. Controlling the entire distribution process — from the time a customer clicks “buy” through delivery — saves on costs and minimizes the chance of failure.

“The ‘next day delivery’ promise, you can’t achieve that if you’re having to move packages through other people’s operations,” Wulfraat said.

Amazon has ramped up its construction of delivery facilities over the last several years, according to MWPVL’s data. At the end of 2019, the firm had recorded 162 delivery stations in the U.S., up from 123 in 2018. Wulfraat thinks Amazon’s goal is to reach a total of 300 to 350 in the next few years.

“It’s all about controlling the customer service experience,” he said.

Regardless of who the tenant is, the project’s scope bodes well for the county’s economic future, Kitsap Economic Development Alliance executive director John Powers said.

For years the Navy has used the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to efficiently bring goods and supplies into Kitsap, Powers said, and he thinks private sector companies are starting to realize it. Bremerton’s airport is also a selling point and has room to grow.

The warehouse project is an example that an economy that relies chiefly on the Navy and defense is starting to see some diversity. Power said he thinks this will likely lead to more activity from other developers in Kitsap.

"The developer on this is a very sophisticated national developer, they don't do things on a whim," Power said. “I see this has a harbinger of good things to come."