GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. — The Town of Grand Island received an application to build a 3.8 million square foot facility that could bring at least 1,000 jobs.
Grand Island Town Supervisor John Whitney told 2 On Your Side that the application came quickly, and seemingly out of nowhere.
The application proposed a facility on Long Road, near the southbound entrance to the New York State Thruway.
According to Whitney, the 19-acre lot the facility would be built on has a pending offer to be purchased.
Many details of the application are confidential, specifically who will operate within the "e-commerce center." Whitney said the e-commerce center would be five stories tall and the land it would be built on needs to be re-zoned.
Right now, there are rumblings from various stakeholders that the application could be for an Amazon facility.
Whitney explained, "Amazon has been bandied about for long before I came into office here and that is the speculation at this point in time."
Former Grand Island Supervisor Nate McMurray believes it is definitely Amazon.
We reached out to Amazon for a response and received this statement:
"Amazon is a dynamic business and we are constantly exploring new locations and weighing a variety of factors when deciding where to develop sites to best serve customers, however, we have a policy of not commenting on our future roadmap and are not yet commenting on any specific operations plans in New York. Stay tuned!"
Jim Fink with Buffalo Business First said the Grand Island location makes sense for an Amazon warehouse from a geography standpoint, with access to Western and Upstate New York, parts of Pennsylvania and Southern Ontario.
We also asked Fink to put the size of the facility into context. He said, "That's more than three times the size of the Walden Galleria, more than three times the size of the Seneca One Tower."
Whitney says there will be a public meeting on Monday, March 2 where more information will be released to the public. Those attending will have a chance to address the plans for the site.
Multiple environmental and traffic studies will need to be completed before the project can begin. According to Whitney, the plans for the site say construction will take two years.
"They want to be very aggressive about this, they would like to be moving as rapidly as possible," Whitney said. "But again, we have to make sure that we do a thorough job and not blow through it."
RELATED: Fantasy Island is permanently closed