Three years after first announcing its plans, Amazon is moving forward with its warehouse project on Route 110 in Melville, documents and official reports show.

The online retailer has submitted a revised proposal to the city of Huntington to renovate two buildings south of the Long Island Expressway that it first leased in 2021. The buildings are located at 1770 Walt Whitman Road and 540 Broad Hollow Road.

The site has been used as a warehouse since 1974, most recently by Rubie’s Costume Co., until the company moved its distribution operations to Wisconsin in 2019. The Beige family, now minority owners of Rubie’s, leased the two buildings on the 21-acre property to Amazon about two years later.

The retailer’s new proposal includes a 20,000 square-metre warehouse to handle the “last mile” to the customer’s doorstep, and there will be a larger outdoor roof for loading delivery trucks.

In addition, the adjacent building will have overnight parking for nearly 180 delivery trucks, which is not the case in many Amazon distribution centers.

“Amazon intends to proceed with its fulfillment center substantially in accordance with the approved site plan, with some specific modifications and site improvements,” Amazon attorney Michael L. McCarthy wrote in a May 3 letter to the city’s planning department. The site plan was approved on August 3, 2021, and building permits were issued.

Apparently in response to residents’ concerns, Amazon has removed the warehouse entrance from Walt Whitman Road. Employees will now enter the site from Baylis Road, while semi-trucks and delivery trucks will use entrances and exits on Route 110, McCarthy said, adding that the trucks will arrive and depart primarily “during overnight hours.”

He said: “On the west side of the property, along Walt Whitman Road, a embankment and dense evergreen plantings will be installed to serve as a natural buffer and visual protection of the site.”

However, Amazon spokesman Branden Baribeau warned that the proposal could be changed again.

“How these operations will look and function is an ongoing process that we regularly communicate with local authorities and seek their feedback,” he told Newsday this week. “While planning work is ongoing and we occasionally submit preliminary documents, no plans (for the site) have been finalized.”

Nevertheless, Baribeau confirmed that Amazon “has long expressed its intention to use the properties at Walt Whitman Road and Broad Hollow Road to support our operations on Long Island in the future.”

The Route 110 warehouse joins eight other Amazon warehouses on Long Island. They are located in Bethpage, Carle Place, Holbrook, Shirley, Syosset, Westhampton Beach, Woodmere and at 90 Ruland Road in Melville.

Each warehouse employs between 100 and 150 delivery workers, whose wages start at more than $19 an hour. Dozens of delivery workers are employed by independent companies that own the delivery trucks and are based at the warehouses.

Huntington city officials said this week they were reviewing Amazon’s latest plan for the Route 110 warehouse.

“This is another example that sends the message that Huntington is open for business and that we want to attract new companies to town,” Supervisor Ed Smyth said in an interview. “Amazon will continue to serve Long Island (in the future) and we want them to do so from a base in Huntington.”

He also said he was “pleased” that Amazon had responded to “the very legitimate concerns of local residents regarding increased traffic on Walt Whitman Road.”

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news, including economics, development and government-business relations. He was previously the Albany bureau chief.