ST. LOUIS — St. Louis-based CRG is developing roughly 36 acres in St. Peters that many in the local commercial real estate industry say will become a last-mile warehouse and distribution facility for Amazon.com Inc.
The development — which St. Peters and CRG officials are calling "Project Smile" — entails a 142,600-square-foot building, 230 employee parking spots and 983 delivery vans on 36.4 acres north of Highway 370 on the north side of Spencer Road, according to a site plan submitted to the city of St. Peters.
Commercial real estate sources say CRG has the site under contract to purchase and the tenant is Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth that opened a robotics fulfillment facility just south of this proposed development last year. Real estate data firm Reonomy and state documents show Lakeside 370 Levee District and the city of St. Peters as the owner of the property.
Amazon spokesperson Daniel Martin said the company "does not comment on rumors or speculation." A spokesperson for CRG, the development arm of construction company Clayco, declined to comment.
At St. Peters' Aug. 5 planning and zoning meeting, representatives from CRG and engineering firm Stock & Associates described the development as a "delivery station building." Amazon has used that term on other developments across the country to describe the last facility an item leaves before arriving at a customer's door, also known as a last-mile warehouse.
Those representatives also confirmed at the Aug. 5 meeting that "Project Smile" is the code name for the tenant who "has requested to be kept secret until they open up."
"I'm sure you'll have heard the name when it is revealed," the representatives said.
"I'm sure we will. I already have a good guess," said Gary Westhoff, commissioner of the planning and zoning board.
St. Peters' planning and zoning board approved the site plan and elevations for Project Smile at the meeting. Project officials now have to submit a building permit application before construction can start. No other details about the development, including a construction timeline and investment cost, were available.
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