Amazon has curtailed staffing plans for its new warehouse in Marana.
The company recently informed the town that the projected 500 to 700 employees has been lowered to 200 at the 65-acre site on Silverbell and Ina roads.
“They plan a slow roll,” said Jason Angell, Marana’s development services director. “They’re going to slowly phase in but expect to begin operations this fall.”
Amazon did not give Marana a reason for the paring down of jobs and did not respond to an interview request from the Star.
But the online retailer closed or canceled plans for more than 25 warehouses around the country last month. None in Arizona.
Since 2020, Amazon grew its warehouse space from 272 million square feet to 525 million square feet at the end of 2021.
In Tucson alone, the company has five sites.
But, analysts say inflation and shoppers returning to stores in 2022 impacted online demand.
An apartment complex next to the Marana facility, at Silverbell and Ina roads, is moving forward.
Developer Ross McCallister, principal of MC Companies, said the site was chosen before Amazon announced its plans to operate there.
“We feel the Marana area is underserved with apartments so that’s why we picked that site, in addition to its proximity to area amenities as well as easy access to I-10 and employment centers downtown, UA and the airport,” he said. “While I was looking forward to having all these employees next door, I was also nervous about the round-the-clock activity (so) I am not concerned that Amazon’s cutbacks will affect us.”
Work continues on an apartment complex near the new Amazon warehouse facility.
The Place at Silverbell Gateway, a 300-unit luxury apartment complex, at 7430 N. Silverbell Road, is expected to open next year.
Aerial photos of Tucson in 1968
Looking north from Arroyo Chico, still more or less an open pit, where it crossed S. Cherry Ave. (lower right) in this aerial photo of Tucson in December, 1968. At that time, Cherry was a popular thoroughfare, extending from 29th Street through the University of Arizona campus and past Speedway Blvd. It was cut into pieces with the expansion of Arizona Stadium, the Arroyo Chico flood control project, and the Kino Parkway extension.
The clean, straight University of Arizona Mall splits the campus in two in this aerial photo looking west from Tucson Blvd. in December, 1968. The 100-foot-tall Meinel Optcal Sciences Building is under construction on open land cleared for more expansion, in the left side of the photo.
Looking east at the West University neighborhood and the University of Arizona Campus, center, from roughly Stone Ave. in this aerial photo of Tucson in December, 1968. 6th Avenue is at the very bottom. Catalina Park is lower left.
Sahuaro High School, which opened for students in August, 1968, in the center surrounded by new subdivisions in this aerial photo southwest across Tucson in December, 1968. The one swath of open desert across the street from the high school did not stay that way for long.
Downtown Tucson with "A" Mountain and Tumamoc Hill in the distance in this aerial photo of Tucson in December, 1968. Homes and businesses in the old barrio have been razed to make way for the TCC and Symphony Hall, left. The Southern Pacific RR hospital (now Evo DeConcini U.S. District Courthouse) is in the center of the photo. The Pima County Administration building is nearly complete, but construction on the Superior Court building has not begun. Stone Avenue, at bottom, still has the large department stores – Penney's, Jacome's, Steinfeld's. But their existence was doomed by El Con Mall a few miles to the east.
Rolling Hills Golf Course and new houses around it along a two-lane (and partly dirt) Golf Links Road in this aerial photo of Tucson in December, 1968. St. Augustine Catholic High School sits on the right side in the large open plot just above the golf course. The "V" building – the only structure on the Southside of Golf Links, is still there. It's the New Life Wesleyan Church.
22nd Street stretches east from Houghton Road in Tucson in this aerial photo of Tucson in December, 1968. In the center, Old Spanish Trail crosses 22nd Street, then Harrison Road. The land surrounding that intersection is now paved over with myriad retail businesses. At least two of the homes in the foreground are still there, surrounded by packed subdivisions.
The new Interstate 10 loops through South Tucson in this aerial photo looking southeast in December, 1968. In the distance, the new interstate hooks right and connects back to Benson Highway – the old US 80. Southgate Shopping Center and the new, concrete-lined Julian Wash are at right. The black line at left is the El Paso and Southwestern RR tracks, then still in use.
And rising from the desert is the De Anza Drive-In theatre on Alvernon Way, south of 22nd Street, in this aerial photo of Tucson in December, 1968. To the left, across Alvernon and barely visible, is the Magic Carpet Slide. In the background, the Bermuda grass at Randolph golf course at Reid Park has gone dormant for the winter.
The shades of the future mesh with Tucson's past in this aerial photo of downtown Tucson in December, 1968. The new Interstate 10 is largely complete, with bridged crossings over Tucson streets. The bulldozed barrio is obvious (at left), but there are still remnants of Tucson's architectural pride: The Carnegie Library (foreground center) is beautiful, the majestic Hotel Santa Rita to its right, and several modest, quirky hotels, theaters and brick buildings with character.
Broadway Road looking west from Swan Road, Tucson, in 1968. The wide Venice Stravenue is the street visible in foreground. The Midstar Plaza is at left. The mid-rise office building at 4400 E. Broadway is under construction, just above the plaza in the photo.
