Amazon to open distribution center in Sonoma Valley

‘The spot, midway between Petaluma and Napa, is unbeatable,’ says property owner Jose McNeill.|

After 18 months sitting vacant, the expansive new warehouse space at the base of Eighth Street East — dubbed Victory Station — will welcome a new tenant in 2020: Amazon.

The 250,000-square-foot Victory Station warehouse, located in Schellville on 19 acres along Eighth Street East, will serve as the final stop for Amazon packages before they are delivered to customers.

Staffing levels and the number of drivers who will fan out from the property onto Sonoma Valley roads have not yet been determined, according to Victory Station owner Jose McNeill.

'Currently Amazon's delivery people for our area are driving up from Richmond to make deliveries here so it's not a net addition in terms of drivers on the road,' he said.

The distribution center is expected to open in the fall, in time for the holiday season.

Before Amazon expressed interest in the empty building, McNeill had expected a wine industry tenant would lease the temperature-controlled space, which could have brought less traffic to the busy intersection at Arnold Drive and Highway 121.

Amazon's plan has been criticized by Schellville neighborhood watchdogs Norman Gilroy, of Mobilize Sonoma, and Kathy Pons, of the Valley of the Moon Alliance, who voiced their concerns in a May 2 letter to Tennis Wick, director of Permit Sonoma. The letter seeks assurances that Amazon would not 'exceed the scale of uses on which the (project's) original permit approvals were predicated.'

Wick said Amazon's plan to lease the building is allowed under the use permit. The property is zoned M3, for light manufacturing, research and development, warehousing and distribution or retail/office use.

First District Supervisor Susan Gorin on Monday voiced concern that Amazon could add more traffic on an already congested roadway. She recently prioritized the installation of a traffic signal at Arnold Drive and Highway 121, even before the warehouse's tenant and use was known.

'Traffic queues up consistently at this intersection and almost a decade ago former Supervisor Valerie Brown listed the installation of the traffic signal on a work plan, and upon investigation, for some unknown reason, the installation of the signal fell off the workplan,' she said, adding that she placed it back on a few months ago.

'But I fear this potential use may increase that congestion before the signal is installed,' she said. 'I'm trying to ramp (the signal) up in priority for installation.'

Victory Station is one of the largest warehouse buildings to be constructed in Sonoma County in the past decade and was, until recently, the largest single tenant option available in the county. McNeill bought the property for $4 million in 2016 from developer Rick Deringer, who had purchased the land from previous owner Ed Ferro. McNeill broke ground in late 2017 and the project was completed in 12 months.

Terms of the Amazon lease were not disclosed. In 2019, the space was listed at $10.20 a square foot per year.

For a space of more than 250,000 square feet, Amazon would be paying more than $2.5 million a year to lease the building if the company paid the 2019 listing price. Cushman & Wakefield was the local listing broker, while Jones Lang LaSalle represented Amazon and its interests.

The building is located near the intersection of Highways 121 and 12, around eight miles from both Highway 37 and 29.

The property is adjacent to Northwestern Pacific Railroad tracks across from the old Schellville Station.

'The spot, midway between Petaluma and Napa, is unbeatable,' McNeill said in 2019.

Amazon, which operates its own freighters and cargo planes, currently delivers 2.5 billion packages a year. The company has expressed plans to end its relationships with FedEx and UPS, and to control as much of its own shipping as possible.

'We are constantly exploring new locations and weighing a variety of factors when deciding where to develop sites to best serve customers, however, we don't provide information on our future roadmap,' Amazon spokeswoman Brittany Parmley said.

According to Amazon's corporate website, the e-commerce giant has 110 fulfillment centers across the U.S., including 19 in California, more than any other state. Paperwork filed for a similar 'last mile' center in Sturtevant, Wisconsin paint a portrait of activity at an Amazon distribution center: Large trucks drop off packages overnight at the center, where they are loaded into delivery vans. At midday, delivery vans leave the facility to deliver products to homes.

Another wave of drivers drop by in the late afternoon to pick up more packages for delivery. The delivery vans return in the evening, and the whole process starts again.

Amazon has experienced a surge in its business during the COVID-19 pandemic, with revenue up more than 26 percent to $75.5 billion in the first quarter of 2020.

McNeill described the road to securing a tenant for his property as a long journey.

'It's an overnight success that took four years, but I think it's going to be a great asset for the county and the town of Sonoma.'

See a tour of a delivery station similar to what is expected to open in Sonoma below.

Email Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.

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