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Amazon's Baton Rouge DC to be completed by August '22; Demo of Cortana to start in May '21
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:10 pm
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:10 pm
Amazon has a very aggressive timeline. How long would it take to widen Airline Highway?
In 17 months, Cortana mall will be gone and this will be in it's place:
quote:
LINK
Now that the Metro Council has approved a rezoning request for the former Cortana Mall site, plans for a massive Amazon fulfillment center on the property should start moving quickly.
The real estate company developing the site for Amazon, Seefried Industrial Properties, has given local project engineering firm CSRS an August 2022 deadline to finish the site, which means the 45-year-old former mall could be demolished as soon as mid-May.
Seefried is currently selecting a demolition contractor, according to CSRS Vice President Walter Monsour, who says the firm plans to file demolition permits with the city-parish in the coming days.
“The last piece of the puzzle before we could put our hair down was the rezoning that happened yesterday,” he says. “So now we are comfortable that we can speed up the process. It is time to go to work.”
At its meeting Wednesday, the council approved rezoning the site to commercial warehouse and designating it as an employment center.
The facility will be more than 2.9 million square feet—more than twice the size of the mall—and is expected to eventually employ as many as 3,500 full- and part-time workers.
In 17 months, Cortana mall will be gone and this will be in it's place:
This post was edited on 3/11/21 at 2:13 pm
16
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:12 pm to goofball
Maybe someone in construction can explain, but why buy that location if you’re just going to demolish it? Could have purchased any number of lots in Louisiana. Was the price that good?
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:14 pm to The Pirate King
quote:
Maybe someone in construction can explain, but why buy that location if you’re just going to demolish it? Could have purchased any number of lots in Louisiana. Was the price that good?
Where would you find a giant piece of land in Baton Rouge that doesn't have drainage problems, already has roadways and utilities, is at the intersection of two major highways, and easy to access for both trucks and employees?
Amazon has been demo'ing old malls in the midwest to replace them with DC's. They say that they like being near the larger population centers, and the old malls were often located where they were because they were easy to get to.
The only other property that might be big enough and fill those requirements is probably out by the airport near the Coca Cola factory....but I am pretty sure some of that land has drainage issues. It's easier to find vacant land for their smaller DC's and fullfillment centers, like the one on Siegen, 300,000 square foot sorting facility they are building in Port Allen, or the one in Carencro (which I think is on the old racetrack).
This post was edited on 3/11/21 at 2:20 pm
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:14 pm to The Pirate King
Probably proximity to current infrastructure rather than buying farmland or something.
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:16 pm to goofball
quote:
is at the intersection of two major highways, and easy to access for both trucks and employees
Bingo, their trucks can hop right on Airline to I-12
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:18 pm to Box Geauxrilla
quote:
Bingo, their trucks can hop right on Airline to I-12
And can easily get to a sorting facility in Port Allen (on either bridge) or the airport.
Cortana is honestly a great location for this thing. They are going to spend a nice chunk of change demo'ing the old mall, but IMO that's the best place for such a giant facility in the metro.
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:18 pm to goofball
quote:
How long would it take to widen Airline Highway?
Amazon is more than welcome to pay to recreate the planned 60s I-410 loop of Baton Rouge from I-12 (I-10 back then) to the other side of the river by turning Airline into interstate grade highway.
The intersections and ramps at Greenwell Springs and Plank Rd are the old skeleton of I-410 from before the project was canceled.
That would improve access to the airport and make it a really quick jump onto I-12.
The interchange for Airline and I-12 needs to be improved too. That cloverleaf interchange is a relic of decades past and it needs to be replaced with a stack interchange to improve traffic flow at that spot.
This post was edited on 3/11/21 at 2:30 pm
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:34 pm to goofball
It'll never be ready in time.
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:37 pm to The Pirate King
Do you know how hard it is to piece meal in lots rather than buying one big piece of land that has almost all the infrastructure that you need? No brainer that this lot was perfect
Posted on 3/11/21 at 2:51 pm to goofball
The lead and asbestos abatement costs for this must be pretty big 
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:07 pm to goofball
quote:
Seefried is currently selecting a demolition contractor, according to CSRS Vice President Walter Monsour, who says the firm plans to file demolition permits with the city-parish in the coming days.
Explosives or wrecking ball?
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:39 pm to The Pirate King
quote:
Maybe someone in construction can explain, but why buy that location if you’re just going to demolish it? Could have purchased any number of lots in Louisiana. Was the price that good?
Two words: existing infrastructure
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:40 pm to The Boat
quote:
Amazon is more than welcome to pay to recreate the planned 60s I-410 loop of Baton Rouge from I-12 (I-10 back then) to the other side of the river by turning Airline into interstate grade highway.
Holy crap why did they cancel that?!?
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:43 pm to goofball
So did Amazon decide to go to the Cortana Mall site INSTEAD of the site that was discussed several months ago off of Reiger Road, or are they doing both?
ETA: LMAO at the downvotes for just asking a question. I’m in your head bitches BAHAHAHA!
ETA: LMAO at the downvotes for just asking a question. I’m in your head bitches BAHAHAHA!
This post was edited on 3/11/21 at 9:16 pm
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:43 pm to upgrayedd
quote:
The lead and asbestos abatement costs for this must be pretty big
Maybe. Cortana has been renovated 2-3 times in it's lifespan, so the asbestos in the floors are probably gone by now.
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:43 pm to goofball
quote:
Holy crap why did they cancel that?!?
I bet the line of politicians with their hands out was longer than the stretch of Airline they wanted to upgrade.
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:44 pm to tommy2tone1999
quote:
So did Amazon decide to go to the Cortana Mall site INSTEAD of the site that was discussed several months ago off of Reiger Road, or are they doing both?
Don't you live in St. George?
The one off Reiger Road was constructed and has been in service for a while now. It's about 110,000 square feet. It's a local distribution hub that serves the Baton Rouge metro specifically. That's not going anywhere. It's very similar to the Elmwood facility in it's purpose. They will probably build at least 3 more just like this in Louisiana (Shreveport, Lafayette, and Slidell).
There's also a new one under construction right now on I-10 near LA415 in Port Allen that will be about 300,000 square feet and be used as a sorting facility. Sorting centers are fairly rare. That will be a transship point between Amazon and UPS/FedEx/USPS and vice versa. This is designed to support larger fulfillment centers; it's usually only in large metro areas, but I think Amazon sees Baton Rouge-Lafayette-New Orleans as one giant megalopolis for their purposes.
Then there's massive (larger than any other Amazon DC in existence right now) Fulfillment Center at Cortana that's in the OP. This is going to be built by August 2022 - 2,950,000 square feet 5 story warehouse + an office building.
This post was edited on 3/11/21 at 3:53 pm
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:47 pm to TheHarahanian
quote:
I bet the line of politicians with their hands out was longer than the stretch of Airline they wanted to upgrade.
Airline Highway is one of the few roads in Baton Rouge that has a massive, wide right of way already. It's nearly 200' wide in some places.
They probably have enough room to move the travel lanes to the far edges of that right of way and be left over with a median large enough for a 4 lane elevated expressway.
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:50 pm to Stexas
quote:
It'll never be ready in time.
I agree.
That's a pretty significant demolition project that will take months, not weeks. Think of how long it took to demolish the old Coca Cola facility where Costco is now.
If I remember correctly an outfit out of Atlanta did Costco and it was over a year from start of demo to finish.
This project is much larger.
Posted on 3/11/21 at 3:53 pm to goofball
quote:
Airline Highway is one of the few roads in Baton Rouge that has a massive, wide right of way already. It's nearly 200' wide in some places.
They probably have enough room to move the travel lanes to the far edges of that right of way and be left over with a median large enough for a 4 lane elevated expressway.
I know a few years back there was talk of turning Airline into this "BUMP" plan, essentially an inner-loop that turns it into a form of an interstate, with side on-off ramps along the entire project... Seemed like a cool idea if the state had shite tons of money, but I doubt anything like this happens soon.
LINK
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