Potential economic development projects at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite and the Piedmont Triad International Airport Megasite have been top news stories for days.  However, there is another major economic development project in the works that hasn’t received much publicity.

According to sources familiar with economic development projects in the area, Amazon is planning to build a 2-million-square-foot fulfillment center that will employ about 2,000 people at a site on Ritters Lake Road between Randleman Road and South Elm-Eugene Street.

At the Tuesday, Nov. 17 Greensboro City Council meeting, 109 acres at 238 Ritters Lake Road was annexed into the city and then rezoned from County Agricultural (County AG) and County Residential Single Family-40 (County RS-40) to City Light Industrial (LI).

The conditions included all uses allowed in LI zoning except amusement and water parks, fairgrounds, funeral homes and crematoriums, and land clearing and inert debris landfills.

At the City Council meeting, Mike Fox, an attorney with Tuggle Duggins, represented Williams Development Group LLC, who requested the rezoning.

There was no opposition at the City Council meeting.

Fox in his brief presentation said, “This is a good site for this type of project warehouse distribution.”

Fox was also asked a question by Councilmember Sharon Hightower about traffic concerns.

Fox said, “There are a number of recommendations about improvements to be made to handle any anticipated traffic increases and we are committed to doing those that have been recommended by NCDOT [North Carolina Department of Transportation] and GDOT [Greensboro Department of Transportation].”

The City Council passed both the annexation and the rezoning unanimously and, other than the one question by Hightower, there was no other discussion or indication of who would be building the warehouse and distribution center.

Amazon currently has a 1-million-square-foot fulfillment center in the portion of Kernersville that is in Guilford County.