Amazon eyes Essex as future home of distribution facility

By Jackson Stoever

Click here for updates on this story

    ESSEX, Vermont (WAPT) — What is now an empty field in Essex could be the future home of a 106,000 square foot distribution center for Amazon.

Amazon plans on spending $4 billion in the next few years to expand its delivery operations across the country. Part of that effort could mean setting up a new shop in the Green Mountains.

“We have customers here today, and we have orders making their way to those customers today,” said Amazon New England’s head of economic development, Jonathan Greeley.

If approved by the town of Essex, the facility would help get online orders to folks who live in rural communities faster.

“When they go to the website and look to order something off of Amazon, they would see a much different and much faster delivery date than they’re currently seeing,” said Amazon’s Last-Mile director of startup operations, Zach Smith.

Not everyone wants to roll out the welcome mat to Amazon. Part of that crowd that showed up Thursday outside Essex High School pointed to the kind of carbon footprint a project of this size could leave in its wake.

“It’s just not the right fit,” said Phoenix Books director of community engagement Joanna Grossman. “They may want to look somewhere else.”

Locally owned businesses worry about what having this tech giant down the road could mean for their operation.

“Amazon will be instead taking money out of Vermont and shipping it right into space. We don’t think that’s good for Vermont,” Grossman said.

Amazon assures Vermonters that this facility will be a game changer for consumers, bringing up to 200 new job opportunities to the state.

“Think of a young family trying to get diapers,” Greeley said. “Or, a small business getting a printer cartridge, or someone with limited mobility, gets their package. That’s what we are trying to do here.”

Thursday’s meeting was postponed until later this month. The town will weigh its options again in two weeks.

Amazon says it still has a lot of work to do before it can begin work on the project. If all goes well, they are expected to break ground in late 2026.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.