Cost to retrofit 2nd Amazon warehouse in Pasco jumps to $43M
The price tag to repurpose a massive warehouse in Pasco for Amazon Inc. just keeps going higher.
The city of Pasco has issued a second building permit for Project Pearl, the 1-million-square-foot warehouse at 1202 S. Road 40 E.
The new permit calls for nearly $13.6 million of work to install racking in about one-fifth of the building.
It boosts the cost to convert the never-opened building into a receiving center for Amazon to more than $43 million.
The new round of work, coupled with earlier authorization to carry out $30 million in renovations, will transform the warehouse into what Amazon calls an inbound cross dock. Essentially, it will be a receiving center for merchandise entering the Amazon system.
Project Pearl and its twin, Project Oyster, were built by Ryan Development in 2022 as fulfillment centers for Amazon to handle customer orders.
Amazon, however, paused its warehouse expansion and the two buildings sat empty. Oyster was repurposed as a cross dock. It opened in late 2024.
Now, it is Pearl’s turn.
The building was originally designed to handle orders for larger goods, such as appliances and lawn furniture.
The spendy renovations include new racking systems and a sorter and automated equipment to redirect incoming shipments to the Amazon network.
To date, workers have removed the original racking and added some new dock doors to accommodate trucks.
It is expected to open this summer with about 1,000 employees. Project Pearl will be coded as IWA6 in the Amazon system.
Amazon has begun hiring leadership and other positions for the new facility at amazon.jobs.