Fall River, MA-- The rebirth of a mill town

Amazon sends letter of intent to locate facility on Fall River-Freetown border
Jo C. Goode
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Oct. 30, 2014 @ 5:14 pm
Updated at 6:36 PM

FALL RIVER — It’s been hinted at and rumored since 2012 that the global company Amazon was looking to open a distribution center in the city.
But bringing the Fortune 500 company to the city may be a reality after Amazon sent to Mayor Will Flanagan a letter of intent to build a million-square-foot facility in the South Coast Life Sciences and Technology Park.
The news is welcome for a city that has been plagued by crippling unemployment for years. Amazon, in its letter, dated Oct. 23, to Flanagan indicates the opening of the facility will create 1,000 jobs with an annual pay of $35,000 or more plus benefits.

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Fiola said that, if the deal between Amazon, the city and Freetown is reached, the company plans to begin construction the first quarter of 2015, and facility would be fully operational by the second half of 2016.

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http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20141030/NEWS/141039417?sect=Featured&map=-1
 
Don't they already have a distribution center in Nashua or something?
 
cozzyd said:
Don't they already have a distribution center in Nashua or something?
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Yes, Amazon is in Nashua, which also had the advantage of avoiding paying sales taxes in Maine, Mass, and VT by not having a "nexus" in those states, and yet being positioned to easily drop stuff for local delivery.

Now, however, Amazon is positioning to compete on delivery time (Same Day) and is signing sales tax deals (usually as part of a package to build a distribution center) and Fall River lets them serve everything in New England that was hard to reach from Nashua (southeastern CT, RI, the Cape, and the South Shore). They're also working on one in Windsor, CT.
 
Does New Bedford Airport take cargo planes of appreciable size? Or are they going to start doing so with their recent renovations? Amazon takes quite a bit of air cargo to its distro centers, so they tend to stick pretty close to airports.

I get the appeal of Windsor...it's halfway between Bradley and Brainerd Airports and the most plush spot in all of western New England for maximum air cargo options. I get the appeal of Nashua...it's a straight shot down 3/293 from Manchester (not sure if Boire Field down the street is big enough for cargo planes, though). But FR is a little bit oddly positioned as a truck route from T.F. Green and Quonset. If they wanted southeastern New England covered I would've thought Davisville industrial park would be the far better multimodal location.


Or maybe Fall River just dangled the biggest tax break. Amazon loooooves to shop around for tax breaks when it's opening a new warehouse.
 
New Bedford Airport could handle small to medium sized aircraft (up to a B737 or DC9) but it will be limited on weight due to the runway being 5400'. The aircraft would have to carry enough fuel to get to either FEDEX or UPS's hubs but it would limit how much cargo it could handle. You may be able to fill it with ping pong balls but not heavier cargo like electronic equipment or such.
 
I wonder if they're planning on getting any shipments by sea.
 
If they do locate in Fall River, it's great news.

Here is picture of the city's old city hall, a elegant victorian granite struture.
Fall River was mandated by the Federal Government to demolish this wonderful building in a urban renewal nightmare that gutted the downtown
area to make way for I-195 to the Cape Cod.

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I believe amazon has something in stoughton as well.
 
Fall River was mandated by the Federal Government to demolish this wonderful building in a urban renewal nightmare that gutted the downtown
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Ugh.
 
meddlepal said:
Ugh.
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Don't worry. Next time that tunnel gets declared structurally unsafe to carry the weight of air rights--like it seemingly does once per decade--they'll get a brand-new City Hall. Non-optionally funded out of the coffers because the upper floors will of the current one will have to be temporarily relocated into some abandoned factory to keep it from pancaking onto 195 below.

Look on the bright side!!!
 
Sagres is as authentic a Portuguese restaurant that exists in the(Fall River-New Bedford area). Again this is an Azorean menu and is one of the oldest in Fall River. Great food and not really expensive.

Good luck Sagres and here's to many more years serving the Southcoast.
 
I remember as a kid in the 80's always collecting real estate books. At one time there was an ad for a new high rise in Fall River. It was for an office building downtown. It was an architectural sketch and it was advertised as under development. It was probably around 14 floors. Obviously it was never built. Does anyone remember this or have any info about it?
 
Battleship Cove (Historic photos) on the Mount Hope Bay/Taunton River arriving @ Fall River 1965
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