Scannell Properties, a real estate developer based in Indianapolis, IN, which has worked on several huge Amazon warehouses, is planning a 2.6 million s.f. ???fulfillment center??? warehouse in Brooklyn Park, MN, a northern suburb of Minneapolis.
The project has been given the code name ???Project Hotdish??? to keep its owner secret, but given the developer and the vast size of the project, it is assumed to be another Amazon footprint. The 4 story building will be the largest single-user warehouse in Minnesota. It will feature 47 truck loading docks and parking for 245 tractor trailers. All loading docks and tractor trailers will face residential homes.
The Brooklyn Park planning commission is voting on September 26th and the city council will vote on October 8th. An environmental study has been prepared by consultant hired by the developer or Amazon. But no independent study has been performed.
One area resident told Sprawl-Busters that ???In addition to hundreds of homes nearby, our infrastructure is woefully inadequate for the volume of traffic for this center. There have been meetings about road improvements but nothing has been agreed upon, solidified, or otherwise scheduled to begin. All construction traffic will enter/exit through the one and only access point to the site, which is off a residential neighborhood.???
Neighbors are upset that the city is fast-tracking this enormous development. City officials and Scannell executives showed the project to the public on September 11th
The building alone is the equivalent of the size of 45 football fields-???not counting the loading areas and parking lots. The parcel chosen has land use and zoning issues. It will consume around 25% of the 227 acres. The North Park Business Center is a Business Park with a Planned Development Overlay. The distribution center is clearly not an office building use, and should be located instead in a lot zoned for industrial uses.
An industrial/warehouse project of this scale is wholly inharmonious with residential development, and will have a significant adverse impact on surrounding home values.
The city has not required an independent traffic analysis, or an independent appraisal of the potential impact on homeowners. A traffic study done for the developer based on the estimated number of employees that would work there over two shifts says Project Hotdish would generate 7,000 car trips a day, with 241 trucks entering and exiting on average. Assuming this will be a 24/7 warehouse, that???s adding 2.55 million more car trips per year to these residentially abutting areas.
Amazon has declined to comment to the media on this project, or to even confirm the warehouse is being built for them.
Readers are urged to send the message below to Mayor Jeffrey Lunde of Brooklyn Park at: https://www.brooklynpark.org/directory/jeffrey-lunde/contact/
“Mayor Lunde,
Your City Plan for 2025 says the city wants ???A balanced economic environment that empowers businesses and people to thrive.??? Project Hotdish is inappropriately scaled to allow the people who invested in homes nearby to thrive.
The city should require the developer to put up the funds necessary to allow the city hire independent contractors to do a traffic engineering review of the impacts on level of service, an environmental impact study, and an independent real estate appraiser to analyze the impact of a huge warehouse on surrounding homes.
If Brooklyn Park seeks a ???balanced economic environment,??? then incompatible land uses need to be brought into balance, and industrial trucking warehouses should only be built in industrial parks. All the requirements of the overlay zone must be satisfied.
This project has been code named ‘Project Hotdish’ because the full impacts–if publicly disclosed–would be too hot for the developer, or residents, to handle.”
Scannell Properties, a real estate developer based in Indianapolis, IN, which has worked on several huge Amazon warehouses, is planning a 2.6 million s.f. ???fulfillment center??? warehouse in Brooklyn Park, MN, a northern suburb of Minneapolis.
