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DENNIS MONTGOMERY, Special to the Standard-Examiner
The newly constructed Amazon regional warehouse located in Marriott-Slaterville at Interstate 15 and 400 North, pictured Jan. 9, 2022, is expected to open for operation at an unspecified date in the future.
MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE — The wait continues.
The gleaming new building that’s to house an Amazon distribution operation in Marriott-Slaterville is complete and ready for business. But a year after the work finished, it still sits empty at the northeast corner of Interstate 15 and 400 North with little information readily available on its future.
Retail Dive, a trade publication serving the retail sector, reported earlier this month that the Marriott-Slaterville structure is one of many around the country with a delayed opening date.
“After a whirlwind of facility openings to keep up with the pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom, Amazon made big cuts to its operating costs throughout 2022 as excess capacity in its fulfillment network weighed on profitability. Those efforts are slated to continue this year,” Retail Dive reported.
Local officials, meantime, say they aren’t getting much information from Amazon, which didn’t immediately provide comment to the Standard-Examiner.
“I don’t have much insight here. We’ve been told that Amazon intends to occupy it in the near future but don’t have any specifics from them,” Michael Batt of Salt Lake City-based developer Gardner Batt said in a message to the Standard-Examiner.
Likewise, Bill Morris, city attorney in Marriott-Slaterville, has no new information. “We haven’t had any updates at all,” Morris said.
Gardner Batt built the 185,000-square-foot structure, to be leased to Amazon, and it’s owned by GB MS Industrial, which is led by Batt.
Gardner Batt also built three other distribution centers in Utah intended for use by Amazon, according to its website, and they aren’t among the facilities with delayed launch dates, according to Retail Dive. The three other Gardner Batt-built buildings include a 201,100-square-foot structure in West Jordan completed in June 2021, a 201,000-square-foot building in North Salt Lake finished in March 2021 and a 150,000-square-foot structure in American Fork completed in August 2020.
Amazon reps said in 2021 that the Marriott-Slaterville facility was to open in early 2022, possibly employing up to 500. It was completed in January 2022, according to the Gardner-Batt website.
Last year, officials indicated a possible opening date of 2024, but even that seemed tenuous. An Amazon rep offered no new insights at the time.
Now, Amazon is looking “to streamline costs,” CNBC reported Monday. More than 18,000 staffers were impacted in a round of layoffs that started last November and extended into January. Now, CNBC reports, another 9,000 employees are to be laid off in coming weeks.
Freelance reporter Jamie Lampros contributed to this story.
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