MIDDLETOWN — Once again adding to its continuously growing network of distribution warehouses, Amazon plans to build one of its “next generation” warehouses on 130 acres of farmland on the west side of Middletown, according to officials.
Amazon purchased the land near Middle Neck and Warwick roads, a short drive from the U.S. 301 bypass in Middletown on Tuesday. The e-commerce juggernaut bought the parcel for $87.5 million from 301 Logistics LLC, a limited liability company associated with Stoltz Real Estate Partners.
The land was nicknamed “301 Business Park North” and was already approved for a 3.2 million square-foot warehouse back in December. Construction is expected to start soon and will be complete in an 18 month build out, according to town officials.
Amazon regional spokesman Steve Kelly confirmed that the company had bought property in Middletown with “the intent of opening an operations facility in the future.” He added that the process is in the early planning stages and additional steps remain.
Representatives for Stoltz Real Estate Partners declined to comment.
Middletown Mayor Kenny Branner confirmed to the Delaware Business Times that the project would be similar to Amazon’s “next generation” fulfillment center on Boxwood Road in Newport.
Branner and other Middletown officials reportedly took a tour of the Boxwood plant on April 15 as a way to get a glimpse of the future for the west side of the town. The mayor said he was impressed with the computer-driven process inside.
“I didn’t realize it, but every building they do is an upgrade of the previous one. Ours is the newest model,” Branner told DBT. “And last Friday, they [the Boxwood plant] put out a million packages in a day. I was amazed, I really was. It’s going to be great to have this new distribution center.”
The Boxwood plant is five stories and has 40,000 robots working with hundreds of employees to pick and pack products to send all over the region. At the time it opened in 2021, it was one of 26 sites.
“The plant manager told us that [Boxwood] ranks No. 1 in the world in terms of packages going out. Last Friday, they put a million packages in a day through 210 shifts,” the mayor said. “I was amazed, and it’s going to be a big plus for us on the west side.”
Bloomberg recently reported that Amazon was considering a $15 billion warehouse expansion plan that would see 80 new sites in rural parts of the U.S.
Scaling the distribution network may also be Amazon’s key to navigating the trade war, as the same Bloomberg report notes that the company canceled projects in Asia amid the escalating tit-for-tat of tariffs that the U.S. and China have issued in the last month.
But still, Branner is excited about the future and what the latest cutting-edge Amazon facility means for his growing town. He said the site will hire between 700 and 1,000 jobs, ranging from technical support to associates. Like previous big deals with WuXi STA pharmaceutical campus or Datwyler pharmaceuticals, Middletown officials worked with companies to assess whether the market had the workforce within a 45-minute drive to support their needs.
Amazon has heavily invested in the state throughout the years, with the first two Delaware facilities opening in New Castle and Middletown in the early 1990s. The pandemic spurred people to accelerate retail buying online, and Amazon quickly rose to meet the demand.
The e-commerce company went on to open last-mile distribution centers at the Blue Diamond Business Park in New Castle, also built by Stoltz Real Estate Partners, as well as one in Seaford. Amazon recently revealed plans for another last-mile delivery center in Salisbury, Md. That site is 24 miles south of the Seaford site, adding a second Amazon fulfillment center on the Delmarva peninsula and indicating it plans to reach deeper in the rural markets here.
Stoltz Real Estate Partners has also received approval for “301 Business Park South” not far from the future Amazon site. 301 Business Park South is approved for 3.9 million gross square feet in a five-story facility – possibly making it the largest warehouse in the state, beating out Boxwood.
As mayor of Middletown for 36 years, Branner said he views the mega warehouses including Amazon to be a part of the long game to grow the town in a smart way. The area has been growing as more homebuyers have been looking for homes in a highly-rated school district in a community with small-town charm.
He pointed to several forward planning initiatives in the last quarter century that have really driven Middletown’s growth. That includes the comprehensive plan and transportation improvement district that targeted Westown, the area west of Route 71 and focused mainly around Route 301 for growth.
“New Castle County was built south of the canal, and we wanted to be able to control our own destiny. Westown is a big part of filling that commercial and industrial need in the comprehensive plan. There’s no way we could have known it would be Amazon, but certainly we knew it would be something,” Branner said.
