Amazon plans facility in old Sears Outlet in Lawrenceville

A former warehouse that until July had been a Sears Outlet in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood is poised to become the latest local “last mile” facility for Amazon deliveries.

The site, at 27 51st St., was initially being developed by Spear Street Capital to lure a tech-based tenant, according to Lauren Connelly, executive director of Lawrenceville Corp., the local development organization.

Connelly said that Spear Street, a San Francisco-based firm, had committed to a number of community benefits from a future tenant at the site, located along the Allegheny River. People who worked there would be encouraged to use public transit and ride-sharing services, public trails would be developed along the riverfront and traffic would be otherwise minimized.

“It is our understanding those might be off the table,” she said.

Instead, the 330,000-square-foot warehouse will serve as a “station” for Amazon’s last-mile deliveries for customers in the Pittsburgh area, Amazon spokesman Andre Woodson said.

It’s expected to open in 2021, he said.

Since word spread that Amazon was locating in Lawrenceville, Connelly said she’s received a lot of feedback from residents, who are concerned about traffic and other issues.

“We’re eager to find out how they are going to manage the traffic and other impact on the community,” Connelly said. “We remain cautiously optimistic until we learn more from Amazon.”

Spear Street Capital didn’t respond to requests for comment.

CBRE Vice Chairman Jeremy Kronman, who was marketing the site for Spear Street, declined comment.

Earlier this year, Amazon opened a 1-million-square-foot fulfillment center in Findlay. It has a sorting center in the city’s Fairywood neighborhood, a warehouse in Aleppo and a delivery station in Coraopolis. Amazon established a technology hub on Pittsburgh’s South Side in 2017.

Seattle-based Amazon employs more than 10,000 people in Pennsylvania. As the pandemic has further encouraged online shopping, Amazon’s retail business has grown rapidly this year. The New York Times reported that the company added 427,300 employees this year as of October, and its global workforce account for more than 1.2 million people, across its many divisions beyond e-commerce.