Developers try to keep user of big warehouse near airport a secret. Clues are telling
Amazon won’t confirm it, but it appears the giant Seattle retailer could occupy the 1.35-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center planned south of the Boise Airport.
Renderings of the proposed building show the same sky-blue color used in Amazon’s Prime logo and on other Amazon warehouses, along with grays and browns. The building also has a design and layout similar to other Amazon buildings.
Plus, Salt Lake City developer Gardner Batt, listed on the application filed with the city of Boise for the building at 6259 S. Pleasant Valley Road, has built three Amazon buildings in Utah and is working on a fourth.
And AO Architects, an Orange, California, firm that provided renderings for the building planned south of the Boise Airport, has created drawings for previous Amazon warehouses using the same color scheme.
So far, no one will admit publicly the warehouse would be built for Amazon. It’s not uncommon for companies and developers to decline comment until long after construction begins in case plans change or for competitive reasons.
“Amazon is always reviewing opportunities for future investments in Boise, where we see high customer demand,” Amazon spokesperson Natalie Wolfrom said by email. “However at this time, I am unable to confirm or deny the project you mentioned.”
Jonathan Gardner, co-founder of Gardner Batt, said the same thing. “Sorry, I’m not at liberty to discuss the future user of the Boise project,” Gardner wrote in an email.
Mike Adler, president of Boise’s Adler Industrial, one of four companies that own the land where the warehouse would be built in a joint venture with Gardner Batt, also declined to say. He said Amazon imposed restrictions on his company for the smaller Amazon warehouse it’s building on Franklin Road east of Ten Mile Road.
“We’re not allowed to,” Adler said by phone while declining to identify the client of the new warehouse. “Amazon does not like any of their buildings publicized until they’re built.”
When Amazon built its Nampa fulfillment center, which opened in November 2020, it kept its name secret for a year and a half before confirming a year before the building was finished that it was behind the project. It previously referred to the giant warehouse as “Project Bronco.”
Likewise, the proposed warehouse on Pleasant Valley Road has been dubbed “Project Dove.” Boisedev.com first reported the possibility that it would be an Amazon building.
Amazon recently struck a deal with the city of Boise to rent 3½ acres of land at the Boise Airport to build a 31,000-square-foot air cargo building to store and distribute the e-commerce giant’s goods.
The air cargo center would be located about four miles from the planned warehouse.
Plans call for the warehouse to contain 98 docks for loading semi-trucks — two fewer than at the Nampa Amazon warehouse — 390 parking spaces for trailers, along with 700 parking spaces for employees’ cars and two guard shacks. Its first floor would have 1.1 million square feet. Including its planned mezzanine, the building would have 1.35 million square feet.
The warehouse is part of a 520-acre development by Pleasant Valley Land Holdings, consisting of Adler Industrial, Ball Ventures Ahlquist, Ball Ventures and Sawtooth Investment Management.
The Pleasant Valley Industrial Park would be built on bare land located between South Orchard and North Pleasant Valley roads and north of West Lake Hazel Road.
Besides the warehouse, the development would include 21 smaller buildings, ranging from 50,000 square feet to 430,000 square feet. There are also plans for stores, restaurants, a hotel and possibly a grocery store.
Between South Orchard and Cole Road along Lake Hazel Road, CBH Homes has begun construction on the 600-acre Locale subdivision, which when completed will have more than 2,000 homes.
It is the most ambitious construction project for CBH, Idaho’s largest home builder. Barton plans a mix of low- and medium-density housing, a village center for community gatherings and commercial and industrial areas.
Construction is expected to last 10 to 15 years.
Farther east, Flint Development of Prairie Village, Kansas, plans to build two buildings totaling 897,060 square feet on a 94-acre parcel at 951 E. Gowen Road. One would have 722,640 square feet, with a smaller one with 174,420 square feet.
The Boise Design Review Committee is scheduled to review both the Project Dove warehouse and the Flint Development applications at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 8 at City Hall, 150 Capitol Blvd.
In his email to the Statesman, Gardner said he expects more details about the warehouse to become public in the next two to three months.
This story was originally published December 2, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
