Amazon goes from two to nine warehouses on Long Island to meet growth of online shopping

Amazon had two warehouses on Long Island four years ago to deliver purchases the last mile to the customer’s doorstep. There will be nine such facilities by next year.

The rapid expansion of the online retailer’s network of warehouses, both locally and nationally, is driven by the explosive growth of internet shopping that began with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The expansion of our footprint on Long Island is largely rooted in improving the customer experience: reducing the cost to serve and providing fast delivery,” said Amazon spokesman Branden Baribeau.

The retailer has submitted revised plans for its ninth warehouse on the Island to the Town of Huntington. The documents show that the 213,000-square-foot warehouse would be in one of two existing buildings on Route 110 in Melville, south of the Long Island Expressway. The adjacent building would be used for overnight parking for delivery vans.

Amazon first rented the property in 2021 from the minority owners of Rubie’s Costume Co., which moved its warehousing to Wisconsin in 2019.

The Route 110 warehouse would join Amazon’s eight others on Long Island. They are in Bethpage, Carle Place, Holbrook, Shirley, Syosset, Westhampton Beach, Woodmere and at 90 Ruland Rd. in Melville.

Asked about plans for a tenth warehouse, Baribeau said, “While we don’t have any future plans regarding new facilities to share at this time, we’re constantly evaluating our network based on business needs and getting better for customers, employees and partners.”

Each warehouse employs between 100 and 150 package handlers, with their pay starting at more than $19 per hour. Dozens of delivery personnel are employed by independent businesses that own the delivery vans and are based at the warehouses.

The increased number of Amazon warehouses on Long Island has attracted the attention of national development companies and investment firms, leading them to want to build here.

“A lot of those new kids on the block jumped in on the Amazon wave that occurred in 2018, 2019 and 2020,” said Mitchell Rechler, co-managing partner of Rechler Equity Partners in Plainview, which is the Island’s largest owner of commercial property. “They thought it was going to be an open spigot of constant demand for last-mile distribution facilities.”