Amazon AR Sort Fulfillment Center (DSM5)

After successfully partnering on multiple construction projects with high-speed timelines, Amazon utilized our development services for the first time with this fulfillment center, which in true Amazon fashion, required yet another breakneck schedule. The project was also our third experience with their ARS-G3 prototype—Amazon robotic sortation with a ground level and three-floor mezzanine. While maintaining customer confidentiality, we selected and purchased an appropriate parcel in a new development in Bondurant, IA, a northeastern suburb of Des Moines, with strategic access to the Interstate highway system.

While the accelerated pace was the greatest challenge, a project of this scale and complexity can only be achieved with top-notch teamwork. While the development team worked through entitlements and permitting, including infrastructure improvements, the construction team recruited a highly skilled group of local and regional subcontractors. Partnering closely with supportive city officials, community representatives, the Army Corps of Engineers, major utilities and the design team, we earned the greenlight. Construction began in October 2019, and we battled through Iowa’s rough winter, moving a substantial amount of dirt, mitigating wetlands, and midway through, adapted and adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic to keep our teams safe and healthy and our project on schedule. By instituting elective testing protocols for the virus, we effectively ran a pilot program that led Amazon construction sites nationwide.

The 2,700,000-SF facility—including an office component and trailer parking—was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. At the time of construction, it was the fastest of any ARS-G3 facility ever delivered for Amazon.