The Dirt: Company with Amazon connection files permit for Project Gray warehouse

An architectural firm with ties to Amazon has filed a building permit application for Project Gray, a large warehouse adjacent to the Seattle-based e-commerce giant’s fulfillment center on the West Plains.

Columbus, Ohio-based Ford & Associates Architects Inc. filed the building permit application with the county last week to build the 278,670-square-foot, $23.5 million warehouse at 6125 S. Hayford Road.

Ford & Associates Architects Inc. has designed a multistory Amazon sort facility in Robbinsville, New Jersey, and an Amazon call center in Winchester, Kentucky, according to the firm’s website.

Irvine, California-based Panattoni Development Company Inc. was listed as the site owner on the building permit application. Panattoni is an international real estate firm specializing in industrial, office and built-to-suit development with 28 offices in the U.S., Europe and Canada. It’s linked to multiple Amazon projects nationwide, including the fulfillment center slated to open in Spokane Valley in the fall.

Amazon’s name is not attached to the building permit for Project Gray, but the company is known to use code names in the design phases of its projects.

The company’s West Plains fulfillment center was listed as Project Rose in its initial building permit application in 2018. Amazon also referred to its Spokane Valley fulfillment center as Project Fireball before it confirmed involvement with the project in February.

An environmental review for Project Gray initially indicated the warehouse would span 315,000 square feet on one level. The project will include 80 loading docks, 500 vehicle parking spaces and 360 truck parking spaces, according to the environmental review.

A traffic study for the project specified the warehouse, which is directly west of Amazon’s West Plains fulfillment center, would operate as “a cross-dock truck terminal and sorting of packages would occur on-site.”

At Amazon’s sorting centers, associates sort orders by final destination and consolidate them onto trucks for faster delivery.

Amazon declined to comment on whether it’s considering a sorting center on the West Plains.

“We are constantly exploring new locations and weighing a variety of factors when deciding where to develop sites to best serve customers, however, we don’t provide information on our future road map,” Amazon spokeswoman Karey Riley-Sawyer told The Spokesman-Review last month.

The environmental review indicated about 700 employees would work at the facility.

Construction on the warehouse is slated to begin later this year with completion anticipated in 2022, according to the environmental review.

New distribution center planned

Spokane Valley-based Mercier Architecture & Planning filed a predevelopment application with the city for a large warehouse on the West Plains.

The project, listed as Fred’s Distribution, calls for a 100,000-square-foot warehouse with a truck dock at 8817 W. Granite Ave. in the Pacific Northwest Technology Park.

Granite Investments LLC, whose principal is Vandervert Developments owner Richard Vandervert, owns the 22-acre vacant site, according to the Spokane County Assessor’s Office.

Vandervert Developments owns and manages dozens of development properties in the region, according to its website.

The application did not specify a tenant for the warehouse.

Doris Morrison center progresses

Spokane County is moving forward with plans to build the Doris Morrison Learning Center in Saltese Flats.

The county submitted an environmental review last month to the state Department of Ecology for the project, which includes construction of the learning center, an access road, wetland trail and parking lot at 1330 S. Henry Road.

The Doris Morrison Learning Center will showcase history of the Morrison family, which homesteaded the land in the 1890s. Doris Morrison’s 103-year life history also will be featured at the center.

She was a school teacher and family matriarch of the Morrison Ranch at Saltese Flats.

The multipurpose facility will provide panoramic views of Saltese Flats and host a variety of educational programs and activities to provide opportunities to learn about the area’s history, ecosystem, geology and wildlife, among other things, according to the county.

The Central Valley School District is providing land for the facility, which will be built at the north end of the county’s wetland restoration project.

The county is restoring wetlands at Saltese Flats to encourage a diverse wildlife habitat, provide the community with public trails and delay water runoff to recharge the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer to increase flow in the Spokane River during the summer.

Construction of the Doris Morrison Learning Center is scheduled to begin in August. The project is slated for completion by April, according to the environmental review.