Last month, Amazon’s Salt Lake City regional distribution center received its temporary certificate of occupancy. This milestone in their development allows the e-commerce giant to begin shipping and receiving packages in their new Salt Lake City facility while they continue to finalize construction on their 855,000 sq. ft. facility.

Set to open late summer or early fall of this year, Amazon’s development project has moved at record pace; a testament to the hard work and collaboration between Amazon and Salt Lake City’s staff across numerous departments.

Here is a brief timeline of the project:

  • February, 2017 – Identified development site. Project design, title, zoning established (all in five months, record pace)
  • July 1, 2017 – Groundbreaking and construction began
  • June 27, 2018 – Temporary certificate of occupancy received

“With a project of this size and scope, the largest risk is time to complete the project and to deliver on time,” says Robert Guerena, vice president of development for Seefried Properties. “We were working with extremely tight deadlines and without the commitment from all the necessary departments and staff from Salt Lake City to meet those deadlines, this project would not have landed in SLC.”

Lara Fritts, Economic Development Director for Salt Lake City adds, “This is an example of the excellent customer service we strive for with our new department. Our team did what we needed to get this project across the finish line. If that meant meeting every other week for the past year, that’s what we did!”

Though a timeline like what we’ve seen with Amazon’s investment in Salt Lake City is not unprecedented, our partners at Amazon and Seefried Properties say SLC’s friendly, pro-business, customer service, and willingness-to-help attitude have made this colossal project run as smoothly as possible.

“I am extremely proud of the work my staff has done to make this development project and Amazon’s investment in the capital city a success,” says Mayor Jackie Biskupski. “We have already seem examples of the positive impact Amazon has brought to our community, and I look forward to a great partnership with such an innovative company that shares Salt Lake City’s values of supporting small businesses and sustainability initiatives.”