Amazon is taking down part of its massive new distribution facility that is now under construction in Barrhaven. The e-commerce giant is currently building a five-storey, 3.1-million-square-foot warehouse at a 75-acre site on Bill Leathem Drive, about a kilometre southeast of the intersection of Woodroffe Avenue and Fallowfield Road. It will be Amazon’s third distribution […]
Amazon is taking down part of its massive new distribution facility that is now under construction in Barrhaven.
The e-commerce giant is currently building a five-storey, 3.1-million-square-foot warehouse at a 75-acre site on Bill Leathem Drive, about a kilometre southeast of the intersection of Woodroffe Avenue and Fallowfield Road.
It will be Amazon’s third distribution centre in the National Capital Region. The company already operates a 2.8-million-square-foot warehouse farther west in Barrhaven at 222 Citigate Dr. that opened in 2021 and a one-million-square-foot distribution facility that opened on Boundary Road in the city’s south end in 2019.
In an email to OBJ on Friday, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the company “has begun to disassemble portions” of the new structure, adding it intends to rebuild it “in a manner that ensures that the building’s design meets future requirements.”
“Amazon constantly explores opportunities to optimize our designs in order for our facilities to better serve customers,” the company added.
While Amazon leases its other two warehouses in the region, it will own the new facility in Barrhaven. The new distribution centre is being built by Broccolini, which also constructed Amazon’s other two warehouses in the Ottawa area.
Broccolini did not respond to requests for comment from OBJ on Friday.
In a development application filed in the fall of 2024, Broccolini said it planned to build the new mega-warehouse – which will be Ottawa’s largest industrial building – in a single phase and was aiming to complete the project in 2026.
The new facility will boost Amazon’s total footprint in Ottawa to 6.9 million square feet of warehouse space.
The online retail giant is one of a growing number of companies that have set up warehouses in Ottawa in recent years to take advantage of the National Capital Region’s strategic location between Toronto and Montreal and its easy access to major transportation routes such as Highways 416 and 417.
In a 2024 interview with OBJ, Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo said that while he supported the new warehouse project, he had some concerns about the volume of traffic it would generate and its effect on nearby transportation infrastructure.
Lo said he hoped the development would be a catalyst for new funding to widen major traffic arteries such as Prince of Wales Drive and Fallowfield Road.
Lo’s office did not immediately reply to an email from OBJ on Friday. 
