New Stockton Amazon facility will create hundreds of jobs in SJ region
STOCKTON – There were smiles all around Tuesday as the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors approved a lease with e-commerce giant Amazon to develop property at the Stockton Metropolitan Airport, creating hundreds of jobs and bringing significant new activity to the region. “This is great for the county, great for jobs and great for the airport’s expansion,” Supervisor Tom Patti said following a presentation of the lease proposal by Airport Director Russell Stark at Tuesday’s board meeting.
Stark said the development is expected to generate 240 jobs for Amazon.com Services LLC, the company that will support Amazon at the airport. Amazon already has several large distribution centers in the region, making it the largest private sector industrial employer in San Joaquin County. The services company will lease 9.569 acres from the county-owned airport in order to build a $10-15 million, 56,000-square-foot building, along with parking for trucks and employees. The building will allow Amazon to more than double the current capacity of cargo that can be processed at the airport.
Amazon began operations there in 2016, using multiple air cargo service providers to transport products to and from it site in a temporary 20,000-square-foot sprung structure. To date, Amazon has moved 205,830 tons through the airport, according to Stark.
The initial term of the lease is five years, with nine five-year options for a total of 49 years providing the airport with $54,187 in annual revenue, or $270,937 over the first five-year period. The agreement includes a 5% escalator every five years until year 21, and, if the options are exercised, a fair market value assessment will be conducted and the rent will be adjusted according to the assessment findings. In addition, the airport will see an estimated $300,00 in annual revenue generated through increased fuel flowage fees and landing fees. The future calls for expanding daily aircraft capacity to eight large cargo jets.