All through the summer and fall of 2019, and deep into this year, a small air of mystery surrounded the $350 million construction project taking shape on the 111 acres in the town of Clay off Morgan Road where Liverpool Public Golf and Country Club once stood.
Early last week, rumors turned into fact – Amazon, the online retail giant, is coming to town, promising 1,000 full-time jobs and a massive economic impact on Central New York when it opens in September 2021.
“This project automatically puts us on the map,” said Clay supervisor Damian Ulatowski.
County executive Ryan McMahon made the official announcement May 18 during his daily COVID-19 briefing alongside Ulatowski, Syracuse mayor Ben Walsh and Congressman John Katko.
“This is an exciting day for Onondaga County and all of Central New York,” said McMahon. “Many of these jobs will also provide a direct pathway out of poverty for many members of our community.”
Currently under construction, the building, when completed, will comprise of 3.8 million square feet, the second-largest warehouse in the world. It’s called a “fulfillment center” where humans, paired with hundreds of robots, sort packages along 10 miles of conveyor belts.
Getting to this point required months of negotiations, along with some secrecy. Ulatowski said that, like many other companies with similar projects, Amazon had not wanted to reveal its involvement until things were further along.
“They (Amazon) wanted to make the splash when they wanted to make it at the appropriate time,” he said.
All of this started back in July when, according to Ulatowski, McMahon contacted him about the possibility of a logistics company wishing to place a large facility in Central New York, using Dallas-based developer Trammell Crow
Activity picked up in September, helped along by some ideal circumstances. For several years, the owners of the Liverpool Public Golf and Country Club were looking to sell its facility, and this gave them the opportunity to do so.
In addition, the location, adjacent to a four-lane road with quick access to Commerce Boulevard less than a mile from a New York State Thruway exit, meant that there wasn’t a need to do a vast amount of road construction.
“A lot of the pieces just came together,” said Ulatowski.
Still, the size of the project drew all kinds of attention, enough that, when the Clay Town Board held its public hearing on the zone change needed to start construction, it drew a large crowd to Liverpool High School Auditorium.
What Clay officials picked up, before and during the public hearing, was that, despite some notable opposition, approximately 60 to 70 percent of the residents that voiced opinions were in favor of moving ahead.
“There was opposition to this project, but not as large as we might have thought,” said Clay planning commissioner Mark Territo. “Many of the points brought up were able to be addressed, and the (town and planning) boards ensured this was the case before moving forward.”
On Oct. 31, the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency approved a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement that included $70.8 million in tax breaks. A week later, the Clay Town Board unanimously approved the zone change, and the project was on.
Helped by a relatively mild winter which work on the land to proceed, construction started March 11, with trees cleared and the land plowed over before the infrastructure of the warehouse could take shape.
Soon after, though, the COVID-19 outbreak briefly halted all but “essential” construction projects in New York State. McMahon and other officials were able to convince Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office to label the Amazon building as essential, and work resumed.
But it was not until Monday that Ulatowski, along with the public at large, finally learned that Amazon was the mystery client.
Not all of the hurdles are cleared, though. Territo said there’s a tight schedule if Amazon wants to reach its goal to open in September 2021, and that, among other things, the state Department of Transportation might modify Morgan Road with turning lanes and traffic lights to accommodate all of the vehicle traffic.
Yet even with these concerns, the town of Clay is anticipating that, over the course of the 15 years of the PILOT, Amazon will contribute $28 million in tax revenue, far exceeding the $800,000 it would have received had the golf course stayed in place.
Also, there’s the hope that employees will live and work in Clay itself, spawning ancillary businesses and generating even more revenue for both the town and the region.
“I’m hopeful it’s everything we want it to be,” said Ulatowski.
