BAZETTA TOWNSHIP – Any speculation over the identity of the previously unknown company seeking to build a $30 million distribution center along Perkins-Jones Road here has ended.

Amazon.com Services LLC has purchased 65.3 acres to develop a new distribution hub at a site just east of the former Kmart distribution center, according to data filed with the Trumbull County Auditor’s office. 

According to the auditor’s website, Amazon paid $918,540 for the land, previously owned by Tina N. Pestalozzi, trustee. The land was appraised at $323,800 for real estate tax purposes. The sale was filed Jan. 22.

“It’s a $30 million project that’s going to bring 200 to 250 jobs,” said Bazetta Township Trustee Michael Hovis. “It’s huge.”

Hovis said engineers are planning to meet soon regarding the project and an associated sewer line that would extend 2,100 feet east from the project. The new sewer line would provide service to the site residences in the area.  

Work on the distribution center and the sewer infrastructure should run concurrently, Hovis said. “This whole thing is a pretty quick project, within a year,” he said.

Amazon intends to construct an approximately 170,000-square-foot distribution center at the location. Bazetta trustees announced the project in May but kept the identity of the end user a closely guarded secret, referring to it as “Project Penguin.”

In August, The Business Journal, citing documents filed with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, named Amazon as the likely client for the development. In July, a site concept plan submitted to the OEPA included a schematic for a parking lot with reserved spaces for managers at “AMZL” – an abbreviation for Amazon Logistics. Another 46 spaces are allocated to “DSP” managers. DSP is an acronym for Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners program, which enables independently owned businesses to operate as Amazon drivers.  

The site plan calls for 341 parking spaces reserved for employees, managers and visitors, according to OEPA documents. 

The project’s developer, Indianapolis-based Ambrose Property Group, has also completed several Amazon projects. Last year, the company helped develop plans for a new Amazon facility near Terre Haute, Ind. 

The Bazetta distribution center would be the second such brick-and-mortar Amazon hub in the Mahoning Valley. In 2019, Amazon opened its first delivery site – a 43,200-square-foot distribution center at the Youngstown Commerce Park in North Jackson. 

The Bazetta site, however, would be the first newly constructed Amazon center from the ground up in the Valley. Amazon’s North Jackson center occupied an existing building that once housed a FedEx operation.

Hovis said planning for the distribution center began more than two years ago, and it was important to keep the project under wraps because of nondisclosure agreements.

“This was the result of a lot of work behind the scenes to bring a project like this to the community,” he said. “And we didn’t tell a soul.”

Pictured at top: Amazon delivery vans are seen at the company’s distribution center in North Jackson.