Amazon plans $1B, 4.2M sq ft warehouse in Holbrook, Long Island

Amazon is proposing a $1 billion, 4.2 million sq ft logistics complex in Holbrook, Long Island, on 140 acres it would buy from Indianapolis-based Scannell Properties. The deal is not done, and what stands between the proposal and a groundbreaking is the part developers should study: a rezoning and a tax package.

Why it matters

This is a clean case study in how entitlement risk, not land or demand, sets the timeline on large industrial. The site sits near Sunrise Highway and Beacon Drive, east of MacArthur Airport, and is currently zoned commercial. Turning it industrial requires the Town of Islip to act, and Amazon has been explicit that the project does not proceed without tax relief from the Islip Industrial Development Agency.

For anyone assembling big-box sites in a supply-constrained coastal market, that is the negotiating posture to expect on both sides. Land that is physically ready and demonstrably in demand can still stall on a municipal vote, and the occupier will say so out loud to move that vote.

The numbers

The complex would combine a 3.7 million sq ft sortable fulfillment center with a 450,000 sq ft vehicle pickup storehouse, for 4.2 million sq ft total across 140 acres. Total project cost is put at $1 billion. Amazon would purchase the land from Scannell for an undisclosed price, contingent on approvals. Construction would run 18 to 24 months once cleared.

The facility would operate around the clock and is expected to generate roughly 300 truck trips a day. It would be Amazon’s largest Long Island facility, about 21 times the size of what the company operates there now. Brad Griggs, Amazon’s director of economic development for the Northeast, has said the project will not be built without the tax relief.

What’s next

The Islip zoning change and the industrial development agency’s decision on incentives are the two gates. Traffic volume is the most likely flashpoint at public hearings.

Note the regional split this exposes. While Suffolk County weighs incentives to attract a warehouse operator, New York City is moving the other way, advancing a licensing regime for warehouse operators that we reported on July 8. Within one metro, the entitlement climate for the same asset class now runs in opposite directions, and that gap is where site selection gets decided. More on the national hub.