Amazon Invests $220 Million In Pierce County Warehouse Deal

It looks like Amazon has some big plans and apparently, they center in Pierce County. 

According to seattletimes.com,
‘Amazon purchased a former Ashley Furniture megawarehouse in unincorporated Pierce County for around $220 million on Friday. 
It marks one of the county’s most expensive real estate transactions, according to property records. 
The sale, first reported by The News Tribune in Tacoma, included two megawarehouses with a combined 1.1 million square feet at 20623 34th Ave. E. in Spanaway, purchased for around $198 million. Amazon also scooped up about 20 acres of nearby undeveloped land for nearly $22 million.’ 

According to reports, this site will added to the over 40 sites that already exist for Amazon fulfillment centers in Washington state. Who knows, it might even leave a little room left over for a data center. 

This purchase is also very good news for Ashley since this property has been on the market for over six months and industrial properties have not been selling well in Washington state. And yes, the price seems high, but because supply is outstripping demand so much for industrial space in Washington state, I would bet that this is probably a pretty good deal. 

Vacancies in the industrial site market have been climbing since 2022. The current vacancy rate for industrial sites in Washington state is around 11.5%. That’s way up from the 4% back in 2022. 

The purchase includes 2 gigantic warehouses with a total of 1.1 million square feet. 

There are at the very least four types of warehouses that Amazon currently uses.  

Large sorting fulfillment centers. Up to 800,000 square feet.  

What are being called non-Sortable fulfillment centers that range anywhere from 600,000 square feet to 1,000,000 square feet. 

Sortation centers. (sortation, Is that a word?) Running at approximately 600,000 square feet. 

Amazon Fresh warehouses. These are much smaller, running anywhere from 25,000 to 45,000 square feet. 

If you take the 1.1 million square foot purchase and then add to that the 20 acres of land that they also purchased, It’s pretty obvious that Amazon is prepared to expand in a big way.