Look inside: Amazon’s new 2.8-million-square-foot distribution center in Charlton

CHARLTON — Across five floors, almost 5,000 robots, over 1,000 employees.

Those are the main numbers that will push parcels through Amazon’s new 2.8-million-square-foot distribution center with a 650,000-square-foot blueprint, expected to rev up its conveyor belts in the coming months on a hill off Route 20.

Although construction work was very much afoot Tuesday morning as work to finish up the last of the work needed to kick off the distribution center, town and local officials walked along with Amazon representatives in hardhats and reflector vests to see the enormous building.

Among them was Town Administrator Andrew M. Golas, who saw the process from the beginning when it was pitched in 2021.

“This is going to hopefully bring tremendous economic growth right along Route 20,” said Golas. “Our town's growing and I think this is the first major step.

“Ever since the beginning, when the first few trucks showed up on scene and started moving around some dirt and then the structure going up…it looked like a giant spaceship that landed in the middle of town.”

To be precise, there were 1.3 million cubic yards of earth moved, according to a representative for Amazon, and about 75,000 cubic yards of concrete used to build it, which is more than what was used to build the Empire State Building.

The property also features two 250,000-gallon containers which Amazon built outside of the building as water supply in case of a fire.

The building is expected to generate approximately 4,000 vehicle trips per day, with 49 loading docks, 265 trailer parking stalls and 1,250 car parking stalls, according to plans.

Anticipated to have a full opening by the holiday season, the building’s top four floors are set to use technology from Amazon Robotics to pick, pack and ship products to localized delivery centers.

More: Amazon warehouse at former Greendale Mall site on track to open in time for holiday season

The bottom floor will be used for truck loading and unloading.

The distribution center is found on a 96-acre lot at 53 Sturbridge Road.

“As we add facilities,” said Amazon Economic Development Manager Jonathan Greeley, “all that does is increase the variety of product and the speed which it gets to the customer.

“The goal of this regionalization push is to make sure we have the product here for people to order it, to put inventory close to our customers.”

In January, a spokesperson for Amazon said that the distribution center built on the former grounds of the Greendale Mall in Worcester is also slated to open later this year . That building is estimated to be 121,212 square feet.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Look inside: Amazon’s new 2.8-million-square-foot distribution center in Charlton