To better serve the growing e-commerce need in the Eastern U.S., Seattle online retailer Amazon is planning to construct a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center at Rickenbacker Global Logistics Park, a master-planned logistics hub of more than 1,500 acres near Columbus, U.S.
The logistics park is located about a half-mile from Rickenbacker International Airport, which is a U.S. Foreign Trade Zone and distribution hub. The airport is rapidly becoming an important cargo center in the North American market.
The new fulfillment center is expected to be ready for occupancy in the third quarter of 2016. Amazon will also build an additional 800,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Etna, Ohio, approximately 20 miles northeast of Rickenbacker, which has direct access to Interstate 70. The two fulfillment centers are in addition to three new data centers Amazon has under construction in the Columbus region.
David Whitaker, vice president of business development and communications for the Port of Columbus, which operates Rickenbacker, said Amazon’s facility in Etna will handle more traditional commodities, while the fulfillment center at the airport will be handling non-traditional, oversize goods.
The planned fulfillment center will be located “within a day’s drive to nearly half of the U.S. population,” said Elaine Roberts, president and CEO of Columbus Regional Airport, which can give Amazon a geographical advantage in its last-mile delivery service.
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