Amazon has signed a lease to take over a large chunk of the former JCPenney warehouse on Pleasant Valley Road in Manchester, according to Director of Planning and Development Gary Anderson.
The massive, 1.9 million-square-foot distribution center at 1339 Tolland Turnpike, owned by Winstanley Enterprises, continues to fill up as the facility undergoes a multimillion-dollar renovation project to get it updated.
Anderson said Thursday that Amazon will occupy a 350,000-square-foot section of the warehouse. Amazon will run four shifts and be operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Adam Winstanley, principal of Winstanley Enterprises, told the Planning and Zoning Commission in December that the company expected to sign a lease with a then-unnamed tenant, which he described as “a prestigious company that will generate about 600 jobs,” according to PZC minutes.
In 2019, Ahold Delhaize, the Dutch parent company of Stop & Shop, signed a 15-year lease to occupy the 975,000-square-foot section of the building. JCPenney has continued to use about a third of the property as well.
“This building is going to be humming by July — it’s going to have Ahold Delhaize, JCPenney and Amazon,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that Amazon typically builds its own facilities rather than lease existing ones, but this could be a sign that it’s planning similar leases in the area in the future.
The 2019 Ahold Delhaize deal was estimated to create between 500 and 700 new positions, and the new Amazon deal is expected to bring several hundreds of new jobs as well. Anderson said he didn’t have final job estimate number yet.
“This is a significant number of jobs, too,” Anderson said today.
Amazon has a major warehouse in Windsor, where it is also building a fulfillment center.
