The company is building its biggest-ever distribution centers in New York, Colorado, and California.
Despite canceling or delaying more than 40 planned warehouse facilities, Amazon just won approval to build another massive distribution center in Niagara, New York. According to an article by Jack Daleo in FreightWaves, Amazon is already building two more megawarehouses: a five-story, 4.1 million-square-foot facility in Ontario, California, and a five-story, 3.8 million-square-foot project in Loveland, Colorado.”
The company is expected to open 250 additional facilities of various sizes in 2022. “Chief Financial Officer Brian Olslavsky estimated on the company’s earnings call that Amazon is allocating 40% of its spending capital to support warehouse and transportation capacity.” Meanwhile, the company lost 99,000 workers in the second quarter of 2022. “It’s a sign that the company elected not to replace the thousands of workers who left between April and June.”
Amazon has been buying significant swaths of real estate across the country, tripling its holdings of built industrial space between 2020 and 2022.
FULL STORY: Amazon is doubling down on its warehouse strategyz
Amazon Shifting From Land Lessee to Land Owner
Amazon has been tending to buy when previously it would have leased, and the trend has massive implications for the industrial real estate market.
Communities Near Warehouses Unprotected by Outdated Zoning Codes
Today’s massive modern distribution centers have outsized impacts on adjacent neighborhoods. But outdated zoning codes often let them slip through the cracks with no environmental review.
Warehouse Sprawl Prompts Calls for Regional Planning
As e-commerce giants like Amazon build more and more facilities, advocates say a regional approach is needed to prevent sprawl and look beyond local benefits.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association