E-commerce giant Amazon’s huge fulfillment center the Port of Little Rock, which has been closed since Oct. 22 because of structural engineering issues, is slated to reopen on Saturday, but the issue that caused the closure remains unknown.
Steve Kelly, a spokesman for Amazon, said in a statement Thursday that the e-commerce company was “working closely with the City of Little Rock, third-party experts and others to ensure our Little Rock fulfillment center meets local building code requirements.” However, a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette didn’t return any communications between Amazon, the building’s landlord and the city over the past month.
Kelly did not disclose what structural engineering issues the building had, but said that the company’s structural engineering firm informed Amazon of its error in a statement without elaborating.
According to Kelly, the building’s landlord, CF BAT LIT LLC, is involved in the remediation process. CF BAT LIT is a Delaware-registered limited liability company owned by Fortress Investment Group.
Mark Lane, a spokesman for Fortress, said in an email that Amazon is “responsible for next steps here” and declined to comment on the facility’s shutdown.
It is also unclear if Amazon has told the city about the issue, despite both city officials and company spokesmen saying that there has been communication.
After a report last week by the Democrat-Gazette, city spokeswoman Apryl Jackson said in an email that Amazon had been informed by its engineering firm of a structural issue related to the facility’s building plans. She also said that the e-commerce company would keep the city updated with information.
However, a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Democrat-Gazette did not turn up any communications between employees of the City of Little Rock Planning & Development Administration and Amazon.
Jackson did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.
The warehouse was issued a certificate of completion by the city in February of 2022, meaning it was inspected and found to be in compliance with the city’s building code requirements at the time. It was issued two certificates of occupancy by the city in 2021.
The Freedom of Information Act request did not return any documentation identifying the company’s structural engineering firm.
The center’s roughly 2,000 employees will be paid for their scheduled shifts, an Amazon spokesperson said last week.
The five-story, 3.6-million square-foot fulfillment center went online in 2021, becoming the retail giant’s largest fulfillment center in Arkansas. At the facility, employees accept and store products ordered online before shipping them out for delivery.
The center’s 2020 building permit was filed by Kentucky-based contractor Gray Construction, which specializes in design-build projects. Gray built another Amazon facility in Virginia, about one-third of the size of the Little Rock center.
In 2021, a tornado hit an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Ill., killing six workers. A structural engineer who was asked to assess the damage after the storm said in a report that the warehouse’s support columns might not have been properly secured to the ground, according to a report from The Verge. Three lawsuits were filed against the company in the wake of the collapse.
In one of those lawsuits, an attorney for a delivery driver said in 2022 that the building’s support columns were not anchored to the floor, in violation of building codes. An Amazon spokesperson said that the warehouse was built in compliance with all building codes.
The closed automated warehouse receives packages from inbound cross-dock facilities, like the $151 million facility the company is building nearby, set to be up and running in 2027.
The company has five freight locations in the state, primarily in Central Arkansas. Those locations include a “last mile” delivery station in North Little Rock and stations in Southwest Little Rock and Maumelle. According to a July news release from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the company employs over 4,000 in the state and has invested more than $2.6 billion.
Lucas Dufalla is a Report for America Corps member. Financial support for this coverage came from the Community Journalism Project.
