Amazon has confirmed to Supply Chain Dive that it is in the early planning stages for a 1-million-square-foot retail fulfillment facility in Norwich, Connecticut. The center is expected to operate as a 'first-mile' node, receiving goods and distributing them to 'middle-mile' sortation centers, after which goods move to 'last-mile' stations to complete customer-facing order fulfillment.

According to Elena Rossi, project manager at Bluewater Property Group, which is working with Amazon on the project, the Norwich center will be equipped with high-tech sorting equipment to store bulk goods to support downstream order fulfillment. Rossi stated at a meeting of the Norwich Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission earlier this month that the facility will operate 'around the clock' for picking, packing, and shipping goods to localized delivery centers.

Amazon said the site is one of two facilities in Connecticut currently in early development, with the other being a fulfillment facility in Killingly. Amazon added that no opening dates have been set for either facility.

Network expansion is nothing new for Amazon, especially on the East Coast of the United States. The company is currently in the early planning stages for a 4-million-square-foot operations facility in Holbrook, New York. Amazon expects to invest $1 billion in the project and says it will create 1,000 full-time jobs.

The e-commerce giant has also previously stated that it will open a 3-million-square-foot robotic fulfillment center in North Carolina this year, while it is converting multiple facilities in Florida into fulfillment sites.

In other regions, Amazon was scheduled to begin construction this month on a 1.2-million-square-foot delivery center in Terrell, Texas, and a sortation warehouse of approximately 250,000 square feet in Georgetown, Texas.

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