While Turlock still won’t talk, emails confirm Amazon fulfillment center is coming
While Turlock officials, the developer and others have refused to confirm Amazon is opening a million-square-foot fulfillment center employing hundreds in the city’s industrial park, emails from the city leave no doubt the e-commerce giant is coming to town.
Turlock provided The Bee with more than 5,200 pages of emails and other documents in response to a California Public Records Act request the newspaper filed with the city.
Several of the emails state the warehouse being built off Fulkerth Road just west of Highway 99 in the Turlock Regional Industrial Park will be an Amazon facility. They include:
▪ “Big question for you guys. We typically get shovels made for the Amazon Groundbreaking projects and send to various stakeholders,” wrote Ben Ochoa with Seefried Industrial Properties, the project’s developer, in an April 28 email to city officials. “Below is an example with the City name or the County Seal, any preference? Also do you guys want shovels, if so how many?”
▪ “... My name is Darrin with Millie and Severson the general contractor for the new Amazon project. We are looking at closing Fransil Ave. between Fulkerth and the Lateral 4 canal for up to 10 weeks,” states a May 24 email to one of the companies in the industrial park. “We wanted to communicate with you to see if you guys are ok with the street closure and re-routing your trucks ... .”
▪ “... I can’t speak to the overall investment, unfortunately. Can you speak to your contact at Amazon and ask them to give you an idea? Thanks and hope to talk with you soon,” wrote Seefried Senior Vice President Jason Quintel in an April 7 email to Maryn Pitt, Turlock’s assistant to the city manager for economic development and housing.
▪ “... Thanks for the follow-up,” Amazon spokesman Xavier Van Chau wrote in a Feb. 25 email to Pitt about setting up a meeting. “Looking forward to connect. ...”
City signed confidentiality agreement
Turlock officials have said they cannot discuss the project because the city signed a nondisclosure agreement with Seefried, stating they would keep their discussions confidential. The Atlanta-based company states on its website that it is “a longtime Amazon development and project management partner.”
An Amazon spokesman also has declined to talk about the project.
But the agreement signed by then City Manager Toby Wells in July 2020 with Seefried states Turlock would have to provide documents that fall within the scope of the Pubic Records Act.
The city also has been able to approve and move the project forward with minimal involvement from the City Council and public knowledge because of how it set up its land-use regulations in its industrial park.
The city has emailed Seefried asking when it can be released from the nondisclosure agreement. But city officials this week did not respond to a Bee email about that as well as the date for the groundbreaking ceremony. Work already has started at the roughly 75-acre site. A company with a New York City address completed its purchase of the land in March.
Records from a previous Public Records Act request state the fulfillment center will be a third of a mile long and as wide as two football fields and as tall as 55 feet. It will employ approximately 700 employees working in shifts of approximately 350 employees, according to one document. The facility will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Another document states the facility will need at least 1,000 parking spaces for its employees.
Minor Discretionary Permit
The records give different dates for construction to be competed, with one stating April 2022 and another September-October 2022. The project’s building permit states the project will have an “estimated improvement cost” of $150 million. It’s not clear whether that is the value of constructing the facility and its other improvements.
The Amazon project is being approved through what Turlock calls a Minor Discretionary Permit that is issued by city staff. That has meant there has been little City Council and public input in the project. The city has publicly identified the development as Project Hornet.
But Pitt said in an email the city created the Turlock Regional Industrial Park in 2006 as “an area where new businesses can locate with as little red tape as possible. Consequently, if a proposed use is consistent with the general plan and zoning, it can be approved on a staff-level permit called the Minor Discretionary Permit.”
“Approximately 85% of the land use entitlements issued within the Turlock Regional Industrial Park ... have been Minor Discretionary Permits.”
Pitt said that includes such companies as Sunnyside Farms, Hilmar Cheese, US Cold Storage, Valley Milk and Blue Diamond Growers in the roughly 2,600-acre industrial park.
Work at the site has been rapidly progressing, with land being graded this week. Two homes have been demolished, and Fransil is closed between Fulkerth and the canal.
Bee reporter Kristin Lam contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
