While construction and roadwork appear to be nearing completion, there has still be no official word on when the new Amazon distribution center will open and begin operations on the Graham side of a Hawfields-area industrial park.
In fact, technically, there has not yet been any official word from Amazon officials that the plant is theirs, other than signs outside the building that give instructions for where Amazon employees and trucks should report.
The Alamance News has previously confirmed (in August) persistent rumors that Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is setting up a distribution center in Graham, in the Hawfields-area industrial park between Graham and Mebane.
See earlier Alamance News stories on Amazon construction:
Amazon is coming to Graham: https://alamancenews.com/amazon-is-coming-to-graham/
Graham center could be new-style Amazon delivery center: https://alamancenews.com/site-may-be-delivery-station-a-new-format-for-package-delivery/
New spec building will be started as soon as Amazon’s completed: https://alamancenews.com/another-large-project-to-follow/
The park is already home to two large distribution centers, for Walmart and Lidl, the German grocer that is entering many East Coast markets; it is also to be the home to a UPS distribution center on 165½ acres just down the road, on the Mebane side of the industrial park. Clearing and grading of land there has recently begun. [See separate story.]
Under an agreement worked out a decade ago, Mebane, Graham, and county government jointly share in the property tax revenues, regardless of where a new company locates within the industrial park.
Amazon will occupy a spec building initially built by Windsor Commercial, the commercial wing of Greensboro-based Windsor Homes, which has built many residential subdivisions across Alamance County. The distribution center has 297,000 square feet, based on original construction plans submitted by Windsor.
Two other construction companies, Choate and Willscot, are doing the “finishing work” within the shell building that Windsor had constructed.
For more than two months, there has been a sign at one of the entrances into the construction site that identifies Amazon as the future tenant, instructing that “visitors and associates” and “trucks” (identified with the company’s logo) should enter along Senator Ralph Scott Parkway.
The address listed on Amazon’s sign for its new facility is 3875 Senator Ralph Scott Parkway, although the main entrance into the front of the site is from Governor Scott Farm Road around the corner.
Paving work at entrances along both sides of the building appears to be in the final stages.
However, the city reports that no certificate of occupancy has yet been requested or granted, a final step before beginning operations.
On Mebane side of the industrial park, clearing and grading work has begun on the huge UPS distribution center: https://alamancenews.com/clearing-grading-begins-on-future-ups-site/
