FARGO — A company that is building a large Amazon distribution center in Sioux Falls, S.D., and which has built a distribution center for Amazon in Tucson, Ariz., has secured a permit to move dirt on a large piece of land in north Fargo.
Ryan Companies of Minneapolis did not return an email seeking comment Tuesday, Sept. 1, and a Fargo city official declined to say Tuesday whether Amazon was connected to the earthwork planned for a 110-acre site in the area of 37th Street and 40th Avenue North.
Jim Gilmour, Fargo's director of strategic planning and research, said the city has been working on an economic development project since June, though he said he was limited on what he could say about it at this stage.
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The city recently fast-tracked approval of a request to annex the large chunk of land — which is next to Interstate 29 and north of Hector International Airport — and rezone it from agricultural to limited industrial.
Although Ryan Companies secured the permit to do site preparation work on the land, as of Tuesday the property was still officially owned by a local family and it was unclear if a land purchase was in the offing.
KELO-TV in Sioux Falls recently reported that Ryan Companies is in charge of building a four-story, two-million square foot facility for Amazon in Sioux Falls that would employ up to 1,000 people.
The report said plans call for the project to be completed by September 2021.
A distribution center Ryan Companies built for Amazon in Tucson is roughly the same size as the project being built in South Dakota, according to the KELO-TV news report.
Gilmour said if someone wanted to build a large distribution center on the recently annexed land in north Fargo they would simply need to secure a building permit for work to start.
In response to a request for comment, an Amazon spokeswoman said Tuesday the company is constantly exploring new locations and weighing a variety of factors when deciding where to develop sites, but added: "We don’t provide information on our future roadmap."
