Amazon’s aggressive expansion into Maine is continuing with a warehouse planned in Hermon as part of its wide effort to increase ownership of delivery systems in rural parts of the U.S.
The company’s third set of plans for a Maine warehouse comes as it focuses on building out a network of warehouses to improve its “last-mile” delivery services. Amazon has poured billions into warehouses in recent years, reducing its reliance on the U.S. Postal Service and competing delivery services in far-flung corners of the country.
The planned warehouse outside of Bangor, which was first reported by WABI, will take up about 60,000 square feet with parking and loading areas included, according to Maine Department of Environmental Protection records. It follows the opening of a 12,000-square-foot facility in Caribou last year and plans for a bigger 158,000-square-foot hub in Gorham.
Amazon’s push to build in Maine is a “really good tailwind” for Maine’s industrial market, said Jonathan Rizzo, a Portland-based real estate broker, adding that having one of the world’s biggest companies setting up multiple locations in the state provides an opportunity for other businesses.
“It helps drive other tenants into the market, so it will help with job creation,” he said.
The plans in Gorham have been controversial, prompting protests at a community forum earlier this week, according to The Portland Press Herald. But the smaller warehouse has been welcomed in Caribou. Mayor Courtney Boma said delivery times in the Aroostook city have improved significantly since the new warehouse opened.
“Sometimes we had to wait upwards of a week to get packages,” before the warehouse opened, she said. Now, “sometimes we’re getting turnaround in one to two days with some of our packages.”
One of Amazon’s top critics, the nonprofit Institute for Local Self Reliance, has an office in Portland. It has long argued the retail behemoth is a monopoly that should be broken up, criticizing the company for its effect on small sellers and local small businesses.
“Lots of small businesses have been completely locked out of the online market because of Amazon’s dominance,” Stacey Mitchell, the group’s co-director, said. “Because Maine is a heavily small business state, the impact of that is even stronger here than it is in other parts of the country.”
In Caribou, Boma said it has not been much of an issue for small businesses.
“Amazon kind of serves a different purpose, and it’s different products that people are looking for when they shop on Amazon,” she said. “I think a lot of our local businesses up here are kind of specialized, so I don’t think that it has had a big impact on our local businesses.”
It’s not clear whether the Hermon facility will face pushback from locals. So far, officials have been mostly tight-lipped about the project. It’s also unclear how much further Amazon hopes to extend into Maine, but the company’s growth remains reliant on newly built warehouses.
“Certainly their business model is not going away,” Rizzo said.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.