Amazon plans a last-mile warehouse in Long Island Innovation Park in Hauppauge

Amazon plans to build a last-mile warehouse in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge — an arrival one business leader said would create jobs and strengthen the community's tax base.

A company representative and consultants at a Smithtown Board of Zoning Appeals hearing Tuesday described plans for a 64,000-square-foot facility with space for 186 "sprinter" delivery vans at 49 Wireless Blvd.

Anthony Guardino, a Hauppauge lawyer handling the application, said at the hearing that the warehouse was intended to handle "a surge of online orders ... The focus for these facilities is on logistics to ensure delivery happens as quickly as possible."

Amazon has more than 150 last-mile warehouses across the United States. Smaller than the company's gargantuan fulfillment centers, which can top 1 million square feet, these facilities are intended to allow for delivery sometimes in a matter of hours. At least nine are planned or in use on Long Island. Two facilities in Bethpage and one each in Carle Place and Shirley-East Yaphank are operating. A Holbrook location will open this year and a Syosset location is under construction.

Approximately 125 to 130 associates would work at the site, along with 50 to 75 independent drivers. The site would generate 206 trips per day, including deliveries and employee trips, said a traffic engineer, Mike Shepley, of Meriden, Connecticut-based BL Companies. Guardino said the facility's busiest hours would not coincide with area rush hours.

Trucks hauling merchandise would start to arrive after 10 p.m., said Michael Cox, an Amazon senior program manager, with the first shift of Amazon workers starting at 1 a.m. to unload and prep vans for delivery. Most vans would leave the facility between 9 and 11 a.m., laden with packages. A second wave of deliveries, this time by drivers in their personal vehicles, would start after 4 p.m.

Smithtown Planning Department documents did not include the project cost or the pay scale for workers, but documents submitted to the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency in connection with the Syosset warehouse put managers' salaries $60,000. The company hiked its starting wage to $18 per hour and said it planned to hire 125,000 warehouse and transportation workers nationally, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Terri Alessi-Miceli, president of HIA-LI, the association that represents companies in the industrial park, said in a statement that "With Amazon’s unrivaled reputation for innovation, the company represents an ideal tenant for our venue."

Amazon spokeswoman Verena Gross said in an email that the company is "proud of the investments we've made in this state and look forward to continued growth and prosperity to best serve customers." She did not answer written questions or agree to an interview.

The Smithtown application is through a Monroe County limited liability company, FSI DJF3. A commercial builder called FSI, based at the same Monroe address, did not respond to a request for comment.

East Setauket developer Tritec owns the 7.4-acre Wireless Boulevard site and had last year proposed a $125 million mixed-use building with 335 apartments there. Tritec did not respond to a request for comment.

Workers would demolish an existing warehouse and build on its footprint, consultants said Tuesday night.

Requested variances include permission to increase height of a parking garage from 35 to 50 feet, put truck loading docks in the front yard and reduce the number of parking spaces from 251 to 123.

Guardino and BL consultants said Tuesday that the site is in an overlay district permitting taller buildings and that there will be no on-street parking. Landscaping and a berm will mask the loading docks.