Amazon seeks to expand again in Idaho, this time at Boise Airport. Here’s what it wants.
[Updated Tuesday, Nov. 16, with the Boise City Council’s approval of Amazon’s plan.]
Amazon wants to build an air cargo center at the Boise Airport with the help of millions of dollars in airport funds for upgrades that could be used by other businesses, too.
The plan, approved Tuesday in a 5-0 vote by the Boise City Council, calls for Amazon to rent about 151,000 square feet of property at the airport, about 3½ acres, to construct a roughly 31,000-square-foot air cargo building and make other upgrades to store and distribute the e-commerce giant’s goods.
The Seattle-headquartered company — one of the world’s most successful private enterprises — also would use the space to load and unload trucks and trailers, store the vehicles and make service repairs to inbound and outbound aircraft, according to the proposal.
Amazon would cover the cost of constructing the building and own it. With planned expansions worked into the agreement, the site lease could expand to more than 171,000 square feet of airport property, or nearly 4 acres.
The airport would fund an estimated $22 million in capital improvements, including construction of a new access road, taxiway and ramp. The airport upgrades are expected to be finished by the end of 2023.
The additions would not be exclusive to Amazon’s use. The airport capital funds used for construction also have the potential for Federal Aviation Administration reimbursement funds once other possible future tenants lease adjacent property, Shawna Samuelson, a Boise Airport spokesperson, told the Idaho Statesman.
“This project is being paid through airport capital funds — no local taxpayer dollars will be used,” Samuelson said in an email. The capital funds are primarily generated from parking and rental car fees, passenger charges, airport concessions and advertising, as well as federal grants, according to airport officials.
In return for the airport’s investments, Amazon would pay about $60,000 in annual rent, adjusted each year to the Consumer Price Index, in addition to associated landing and ramp fees. The initial lease term would be for 10 years, with renewals set for every five years, lasting up to 35 years — as far out as 2059.
Airport officials said they could not offer a fuller estimate of Amazon’s expected annual payments due to fluctuations in actual year-to-year usage.
“The project adds jobs and helps connect our small, medium, and large businesses to the world in a bigger way,” Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said in an emailed statement. “Growing our transportation infrastructure like this is critical to Boiseans being able to take advantage of opportunities wherever they may be.”
Amazon has emerged as a major Treasure Valley employer in the past few years, with more than 3,500 workers in Idaho as of last spring. The company’s 2.7-million-square-foot Nampa fulfillment center alone employs 2,500 people, according to Amazon. It has opened several other sorting and delivery stations across the valley.
Including infrastructure and employee compensation, Amazon has spent $350 million in Idaho between 2010 and 2020, Natalie Wolfrom, an Amazon spokesperson, told the Statesman by email. The planned air cargo center should help increase the company’s ability to deliver products faster throughout the state, she said.
“We hope to increase the speed of service to our growing customer base in Idaho while continuing to invest in the Boise area,” Wolfrom said. “We look forward to hopefully making this investment in Boise.”
With the recent additions, Amazon previously projected it would increase statewide employment to more than 4,000 employees in Idaho. It was unclear how many more jobs the proposed air cargo center would bring to the Treasure Valley, but the total should once again increase, Wolfrom said.
Even so, the 4,000-plus Amazon workers would make the company the eighth-largest employer in the state and fourth-largest in the Treasure Valley, behind St. Luke’s Health System, Micron Technology and Saint Alphonsus Health System, according to the Boise Valley Economic Partnership.
Amazon operates more than 250 delivery stations in the United States. Packages go from larger fulfillment and sortation centers to delivery stations before they are delivered to customers.
Reporter Kyle Land contributed.
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 6:27 PM.
CORRECTION: Amazon’s big Nampa fulfillment center near Interstate 84 has four floors that occupy 2.7 million square feet, according to the Canyon County assessor’s office. Its ground-floor footprint is 709,138 square feet. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the building’s square footage, based on an error in the Amazon news release that announced the building’s opening.
