Amazon’s ARS fulfillment center in Gates finally operational after long delay

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The opening was delayed more than a year, which meant the planned boost to the local workforce also was put on hold.

But the gargantuan Amazon Robotics Sortable (ARS) fulfillment center on Manitou Road in Gates is now fully operational and home to more than 1,000 full- and part-time employees as well as the latest in industrial robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Approximately 45 football fields could fit inside the 2.6 million-square-foot building, where more than 700,000 inbound and outbound items are processed every day for delivery throughout the Greater Rochester area.

The price tag for the facility was $512 million, with the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) providing $151 million in property tax, sales tax and mortgage recording tax incentives.

It was a discount Amazon said it needed to make the project work, and one economic development officials say made perfect sense.

The fulfillment center was built on vacant property and is projected to provide to the region just shy of $1 billion in direct economic benefits, along with another $33 million in spillover benefits, over the duration of the 15-year PILOT agreement.

That includes $58 million in taxes to be shared by the town of Gates and Gates School District, said Ana Liss, executive director of the county agency.

“We’re getting a lot more in tax revenue than we were when this property was empty,” Gates Town Supervisor Cosmo Giunta said. “Plus, as employees earn, they’re injecting money into our economy.”

And then there’s ancillary benefits, too. Whitestone Development has plans for 400 apartment units, approximately 20 for-rent patio homes and around 60 single-family homes on 85 acres not far away off Buffalo Road, Giunta said. Taouk Development is building a luxury apartments mere steps away across Manitou Road in the town of Ogden.

“You may have people that move to Gates, whether they’re renting or purchasing a home, because of Amazon,” Giunta said. “There’s a considerable trickle-down effect.”

Operations in Gates began in October — well past the initial target of Q3 of 2023 — and have gradually ramped up over the past eight months. This is Amazon’s third ARS facility in the state; the others are in suburban Syracuse and on Staten Island.

“We are proud to bring Amazon’s latest robotics technology to the Rochester area to work alongside our incredible employees and continue to deliver for our customers in New York and beyond,” said Shirley Tarabochia, general manager of the fulfillment center.

At the official grand opening of the facility last week — when town, county and state political leaders were given a tour — Amazon management trumpeted the benefits provided to all members of a still-growing workforce.

Health care benefits, a 401k, paid parental leave and a flexible schedule are standard, Tarabochia said. So, too, is Amazon’s Career Choice program, which pre-pays the cost of tuition at 18 SUNY schools, including Brockport and Empire State University.

“When we tell that to our employees, they’re like, ‘No, you’re kidding,’ ” Tarabochia said.

While on the job, employees are supported by thousands of programmed robots — think oversized Roombas, all colored Amazon blue — that deliver products from across the fulfillment center to various workstations.

The facility is the “first mile” of a package’s journey, and once it moves through each stage at the fulfillment center then is trucked to a “last mile” delivery center, either in Greece or Henrietta.

“The high-tech infrastructure in this building is mind-boggling,” Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said.

State Sen. Jeremy Cooney (D-Rochester) said the opening of the fulfillment center does more than ensure that merchandise ordered on Amazon ends up on customer doorsteps in an efficient manner.

He pointed to the “impact on the lives of people who work here in Gates. This is the growth we have been waiting for as a community.”

Cooney saw more than just the efficiency of the shipping operation, though. As chair of the Senate’s Transportation Committee, he was impressed that Amazon worked with Regional Transit Service to establish bus service right to the fulfillment center property.

“That means from a quality-of-life standpoint and an equitable opportunity standpoint, workers will easily be able to get to work on time,” Cooney said.

While Amazon is the world’s second-largest employer, the company strives to be local. Over the past two years, the company said it has donated nearly $500,000 to Rochester-area organizations, from the YMCA of Greater Rochester and Rochester Hispanic Youth Baseball League to Junior Achievement of Central Upstate New York and the Neil Armstrong Elementary School.

“It’s a no-brainer why Amazon chose to expand to the town of Gates: our community has a rich history of innovation and boasts the highly skilled, educated and diverse workforce required for Amazon to carry out its mission,” Rep. Joe Morelle (D-Irondequoit) said. “This new facility will support the high-quality careers for families in Rochester and spur economic development on a regional scale.”

It also will do one other very noticeable thing:

“When people here order something from Amazon,” Giunta said, “they’ll probably get same-day delivery.”

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