STOCKTON — Amazon’s fifth major distribution center in the Northern San Joaquin Valley will open soon in Stockton.
CT Realty has leased a newly-constructed 1,122,341-square-foot industrial building to Amazon at NorCal Logistics Center on Newcastle Road in Stockton. The deal comes after Amazon earlier this month official opened a 600,000-square-foot fulfillment center on South B Street in Stockton. Each facility will eventually employ 1,000 workers apiece.
Amazon has established the Northern San Joaquin Valley as its prime location in its strategy to serve the massive Northern California megaregion with nearly 18 million consumers including those in San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland.
Amazon already has two major distribution centers in Tracy as well as one in Patterson. Like the second Tracy distribution center, the second warehouse in Stockton will handle larger items such as furniture and rugs.
There is also an Amazon Prime distribution center in Manteca that is situated to provide one-hour deliveries for a somewhat limited array of items to customers in Modesto, Stockton, Tracy, Manteca, Lathrop, and Ripon.
Amazon is taking full advantage of the unparalleled transportation access in South San Joaquin County that includes truck-to-train intermodals operated by both Union Pacific and Santa Fe railroads, Interstate 5, Highway 99, and freeway access to the Bay Area. It could ultimately take forward of efforts to move containers up to the Port of Stockton.
Stockton Metro Airport is arguable the linchpin of the company’s strategy. There are six or more Amazon Prime Air jets fly into the airport daily to play a key role in the company’s strategy to have nimble inventories as well as to stay ahead of the competition with rapid customer deliveries.
The Amazon lease marks the completion of CT’s roughly 1.7-million-square-foot first phase at the 345-acre NorCal Logistics Center, following the sale of two completed buildings totaling 575,127 square feet to Prologis in July 2018.
CT is underway on the second phase of development at NorCal Logistics Center, with five buildings totaling 2,739,518 square feet that will be built as a mix of spec and build-to-suit projects.
“Our lease with Amazon reinforces the increasingly high demand for quality logistics facilities near heavily populated metropolitan areas,” said Carter Ewing, managing partner of CT. “Having begun NorCal Logistics Center entirely on a spec basis, CT has now leased or sold the first phase of the project at a pace that reaffirms our belief in the regional demand drivers and mirrors the activity we are experiencing in several other projects nationwide.”
Located at 4532 Newcastle Road, Amazon’s new fulfillment center benefits from proximity to Santa Fe and Union Pacific intermodal facilities and is accessible to SR-99, I-5, I-205 and I-580, linking to all major Northern California markets and key Western U.S. destinations. The project is home to General Mills, KeHE Foods, Allen Distributors and Fox Head, and is in the heart of California’s Central Valley, a 185-million-square-foot industrial market. The region is an extension of a global logistics supply chain infrastructure that links to West Coast ports in Oakland/Stockton, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Portland, Ore. and Seattle/Tacoma, Wash.
“The evolution of modern logistics infrastructure, including inland ports, sea ports and commercial rail systems, has changed the dynamics of how containerized cargo is distributed nationwide and throughout the world,” added Ewing. “Investing in buildings that are strategically located near this infrastructure is integral to meeting the demands of today’s most progressive logistics users and is at the heart of our national strategy.”
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