Amazon is targeting a new last-mile delivery site near John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) that will be one of the retail giant’s largest warehouses in the New York region.
The Seattle-based company signed a lease for the JFK Logistics Center development on 253-51 Rockaway Boulevard in Woodmere in Nassau County, Town of Hempstead officials announced Tuesday. The three-story, 422,000-square-foot warehouse will be constructed on 11 acres, with a portion of the site’s parking lot situated in Rosedale, Queens.
“We are excited to continue to invest in New York with a new Woodmere delivery station that will provide efficient delivery for customers, and create job opportunities with highly competitive pay, benefits starting on the first day of employment, and training programs for in-demand jobs,” Amazon spokeswoman Jenna Hilzenrath said in a statement.
The development will replace a previous long-term airport parking lot utilized by JFK. It is expected to deliver at least 50 full-time, or the equivalent, jobs within two years of its completion, according to Amazon.
JFK Logistics Center, the builder and owner of the warehouse, is an affiliate of Manhattan-based developer Wildflower Ltd. The company, whose partners include Robert De Niro’s son, residential broker Raphael De Niro, is spending $76 million on the project.
Adam Gordon, a managing partner at Wildflower, declined to comment on specifics of the JFK project but said his company is “Amazon’s most active e-commerce developer in New York City” due to its other warehouse projects with the company in Queens and Brooklyn. In November, Amazon leased 211,000 square-feet of newly developed warehouse space in Brooklyn’s East New York section in concert with Wildflower.
The Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency approved a 15-year payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement for the Amazon project late last year.
As part of the PILOT deal, Wildflower made a one-time $250,000 payment to the Lawrence School District where the property is located.
“We are excited that Amazon has decided to locate their facility within the Town of Hempstead,” Hempstead Town Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr. said in a statement. “The jobs it will create to distribute products throughout the region will provide opportunities for our residents and help Long Island recover from the pandemic.”