A 1-million-square-foot warehouse at the site of the former Strick Trailer property on Business Route 1 in Falls is “not happening”, said an official with the company that now owns the property.
Bill Koelewyn, general manager of 225 Lincoln Properties, confirmed that a sketch plan for the warehouse was sent to Falls officials and that there was some initial conversation but the project didn’t “come to fruition.”
Rumors circulating around the community had Amazon coming to the site, but Koelewyn would not identify the possible tenant and Falls supervisors Chairman Jeff Dence said the sketch plan did not mention Amazon or any other possible tenant. He added that the plan had not been officially filed with the township.
“There was a conversation just about the possibility of a warehouse being placed here but it didn’t come to fruition,” Koelewyn said when approached at the property Monday afternoon.
The company named for the address of the property at 225 Lincoln Highway rents out space in several buildings to dozens of small businesses.
“There’s such a drive to build warehouses along the I-95 corridor that they look at every site and they come talk to you,” Koelewyn said. “But it’s not moving forward, it’s not happening. We’re a small business incubator and we’ll continue with that mission.”
Amazon, however, is making a home in Bucks County with warehouses planned in Bensalem, Bristol Township and Falls.
Amazon, GM and several other large corporations are possible tenants in warehouses proposed by NorthPoint Development as part of its massive proposed redevelopment of the U.S. Steel site in Falls.
The project, which involves construction of up to 15 million square feet of state-of-the-art warehouses, and possibly more, will be built in phases over the next several years, NorthPoint officials said. They hope to start the first phase in the spring.