Amazon is setting its sights on Western New York expansion once again, this time in Hamburg.
The multinational tech and internet retailer based in Seattle, Washington is expected to invest over 47 million dollars into building a warehouse distribution center along Route 5 and Bayview Road on what is currently unused land.
Town Supervisor Jim Shaw is hopeful this Amazon project, while smaller, is a better fit for his community than the now scrapped-one in Grand Island.
“Those who want to maintain the status quo will raise I'm sure some arguments, but I think the location for this distribution center is ideally situated,” Shaw said. “I think there are sufficient buffers to isolate it from residential communities. It is on a main thoroughfare, Route 5 Lakeshore Road. It is about, I'd say a mile from the 179 Interchange to the thruway. So I think it is well positioned.”
The proposed site would be home to an estimated 100 jobs, and take up over 100,000 square feet of the 65 acres that Bayview Road Associates acquired from the Hamburg Land Development Corporation back in August. Supervisor Shaw said welcoming a major company to Hamburg can help push the town forward.
“We'll develop some land that is industrially-zoned, and will create new jobs at a time when the economy could certainly use all the new employment possibilities we can get,” said Shaw. “I think it puts us on the map as a hub township for the southern tier, moving west and moving south.”
The project enters the public meeting phase as it goes before the Hamburg Industrial Development Agency on January 22, where more details of the plan including tax incentives would be discussed and up for public comment.
Should Amazon get approval through the various levels of town government, Shaw expects construction could begin as early as spring of this year.
