Amazon's 3.5 million square-foot robotics facility is swiftly taking shape in Colorado
Amazon's latest logistics marvel, a sprawling 3.5 million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center, is swiftly taking shape in Loveland, Colorado. Work continues on 3.5 million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment in Loveland
Construction continues on a 3.5 million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center — a four-story building large enough to hold 63 football fields — that is expected to open with 1,000 employees. Amazon officials aren’t ready to say exactly when the facility will begin filling online orders.
“We have not established a rough opening date at this time,” Sam Bailey, economic development policy manager for the Mountain West region, said during a Friday tour of the facility. He did confirm that it will not be this year, saying: “We never anticipated 2024.”
The new Amazon building is seen from the main frontage road in Loveland, Colo on Friday, March 1, 2024. The 3.5 million square foot building is the latest robotic fulfillment center and one of the most complex of Amazon's facilities. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
The 3.8 million square foot Amazon facility in northeast Loveland during early construction. This image was recorded July 21, 2022. Ken Amundson/BizWest
The front entrance, still under construction, is pictured at the new Amazon building in Loveland. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
An empty interior under construction is pictured at the new Amazon building in Loveland, Colo on Friday, March 1, 2024. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
Workers at the new Amazon building do some construction projects from scissor lifts. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
An empty interior under construction is pictured at the new Amazon building. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
Construction equipment and wires are seen at the new Amazon building in Loveland. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
Sam Bailey gives a tour of the new Amazon building in Loveland, Colo. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
Sam Bailey gives a tour of the new Amazon building in Loveland, Colo on March 1, 2024. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
A worker moves gear around while at the new Amazon building. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
The front entrance, still under construction. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
An empty interior under construction is pictured at the new Amazon building. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
An empty interior under construction. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
Sam Bailey gives a tour of the new Amazon building in Loveland. Logan Newell/The Coloradoan
DEN9, as the Loveland facility is known among Amazon officials, has been in the works since late 2021 with the first physical work being to grade the land to prepare it for construction, followed by outside site work and construction of the facility.
Sam Bailey, economic development policy manager for the Mountain West Region of Amazon, talks Friday about how robots and a conveyor system will bring products to employees to fulfill orders once the Loveland Amazon fulfillment center opens. Bailey stands on the first of four floors within the 3.5 million-square-foot building under construction just off of County Road 30 in Loveland.(Pamela Johnson / Loveland Reporter-Herald)
The massive building sits on 152 acres in northeast Loveland – a place that, once open, Bailey said is expected to employ 1,000 people to start. Bailey could not offer an estimate of what that workforce could grow to with time, but he did say that the Thornton facility that opened in 2017 is now at 3,000 employees.
Though the inside of the building still looks like a wide open shell, Bailey explained how it will work once open to make sure items people order with a simple click make it to their doorsteps on the quick.
Amazon has different types of fulfillment centers as well as delivery hubs. This particular fulfillment center will be for smaller items — things that fit into a 1-foot by 2-foot bin and weigh less than 50 pounds. Bailey said the inventory could be 25 million to 40 million units.
All of the product will be stored in the center of the building, and bins of goods will be transported from that product area to all four levels of the facility on a 12-mile conveyor system, using robotic devices. Based on other facilities, Bailey said the Loveland center will likely have about 5,000 robotic units.
The actual Amazon employees will work on the perimeter of each level, pulling product from the bins to be placed in packages and given shipping labels.
Amazon has said the Loveland facility will have 25 million to 40 million units of products to fulfill orders, all of which will be small enough to fit in a “garage style” bin and weight less than 50 pounds.
This particular Amazon facility will then take the packaged shipments via semi-truck to another type of Amazon facility where they will ultimately be put onto what Bailey described as “our iconic blue” vehicles. In Colorado, Amazon has nine fulfillment and “sortation” centers and nine delivery hubs, including one delivery hub located in Loveland.
Sortation centers are places where packages are sorted according to geographical areas before being filtered onto the different delivery routes.
Amazon has multiple facilities across Colorado from Colorado Springs to Loveland, and according to Bailey, has spent $11.3 billion in the state since 2010. As of January, there were 20,000 full- and part-time employees on the Amazon payroll in Colorado, and the company has contracts with 8,500 small businesses within the state to sell their products, he said. Amazon also reported another 33,000 indirect jobs within the state.
The type of product at Loveland, he said, will be determined by the market and demand. A wide array of products will be available from the facility, which in addition to adding jobs, will likely reduce shipping times in the region as well as the impact of transportation, Bailey said.
Currently, the inside of the massive facility is a wide open skeleton with much work completed and much more still to go before opening date. The ceiling is 28 feet high on the first level and half that on the second, third and fourth floors. Eventually, it will be filled with robots, product and people, working across several shifts.
“In terms of track, I think you could run a 400-meter dash from one end to the other,” Clark said, of the size of the Loveland facility.
Right now, Amazon’s new fulfillment center built in Colorado Springs is the largest Amazon building in the state of Colorado, Bailey said. When the Loveland center is complete, it will follow in second place, he said.
“These buildings are large in scale and so is their output,” Bailey said. “So it is a timeframe for us from the conceptual plan we showed the city to get to where we are (now). This is progress from where this site wasn’t being used for economic development.”
