The worst-kept secret in City Hall is officially no longer a secret.
A large proposed warehouse working its way through the city of Apopka’s approval process was long rumored to be for e-commerce giant Amazon and that was confirmed at the Wednesday, June 3, City Council meeting.
With a bit of a grin, city senior planning manager David Moon let the cat out of the bag about the warehouse that will cover 201,475 square feet on the southeast corner of General Electric Road and Hermit Smith Road in the Plymouth area of Apopka.
During its time at City Hall, the proposed project has been known as DFL5 Apopka Last Mile. The last mile moniker is one Amazon uses to describe a warehouse where products sold by the company are shipped to just prior to being delivered at homes and businesses.
Moon first introduced the players in the development process, including those who will be working on development of the project for Amazon.
“They wouldn’t tell us who they’re representing, but it involved a 200,000-square foot distribution center called the last mile. They wouldn’t tell us who they were representing, but they did tell us they wanted to be under construction in the middle of July. Given that, we set out a plan to try to accomplish that,” Moon told members of the City Council.
“At this point, you have the first reading of an amendment to the PUD master plan for the Mid-Florida Logistics Park, but on the agenda tonight, you also have the preliminary development plan for lot 3 that accommodates what they represent, which is Amazon.”
In a city staff Development Review Committee meeting in April, plans revealed several details about the proposed project.
According to the plans, the warehouse will have a van-loading area that will accommodate 160 vans, 80 immediately on either side of the warehouse. There is also a space for 160 vehicles in the van-staging area, which is just outside the van-loading area.
On the south end of the warehouse, space for 15 semi-tractor trailers has been planned.
Although there is no mention of the number of employees needed for the warehouse in the documents submitted to the city, plans call for 422 parking spaces for employees.
In addition, vans not in use will be parked in two areas that will accommodate 1,132 vans outside the van-staging areas. Electric charging stations for vans are planned for a later date for the van-parking areas.
The extended story about the warehouse as well as other City Council agenda items begins on page 1A of the Friday, June 5, issue of The Apopka Chief. Subscribe today!
