The Target Corp. could begin construction as early as this summer on a $62 million expansion of its distribution center in the Florida Business Park.
The Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday viewed and approved plans for the build-out eyed for the east side of the massive 1.5 million-square-foot building off state Route 5S.
Assistant Planner Randy Siver said the Planning Board approved the plans without conditions and the plans now go back to the Florida Town Planning Board.
The project also requires a permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Siver said.
Siver said planning documents estimate the expansion will mean between 25 and 30 additional trips daily on top of the average 96 trucks that enter or leave the site in the morning and 197 trucks in the evening.
The land to be developed was already leveled in anticipation of the expansion, but the addition of 470,000 square feet of space exceeds original approvals for the site, so a full environmental assessment was required, according to Montgomery County economic development director Ken Rose.
Once complete, the overall square footage will reach 1,940,000 square feet.
The county Industrial Development Agency is in the early stages of developing a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the new portion of the building, which would cost an estimated $62 million to build, Rose said.
Under the company’s PILOT agreement for the current building, which runs from 2004 to 2018, the company is paying $2 million annually, which is distributed in different proportions to the town of Florida, Montgomery County and the Fonda-Fultonville and Greater Amsterdam school districts, Rose said.
Target spokeswoman Jenn Glass said the expansion is aimed at increasing the facility’s capacity and is an alternative to building an all-new facility during the economic recession.
The facility serves as a distribution center where goods are stored and sent to individual stores as needed. Glass said the site serves between 60 and 80 stores in the Northeast.
The site currently employs more than 570 people. Glass said the overall economy will dictate whether more are hired.
Target is planning to build 10 stores this year, Glass said. In better days, the company was building between 50 and 60 stores a year.
Rose said the project will bring as many as 175 construction workers to the area.
A Florida Town Planning Board hearing on the site plan is scheduled for April 5 and the IDA hearing on a PILOT is scheduled for April 6, both at the Florida Town Office Building.
Categories: Business, Schenectady County
