Bruckner Amazon, Home Depot set to open its door in mid-2022

The nation’s largest two-story logistics and distribution building that is being built on the former home of the Whitestone Multiplex Cinemas will open in mid-2022, a source involved with the project confirmed with the Bronx Times last week.

The facility, being developed at 2505 Bruckner Blvd., by Innovo Property Group and Square Mile Capital Management, will total one million square feet, including 595,000 square feet of warehouse space and 374,000 square feet of parking and will include tenants such as tech giant Amazon and Home Depot.

In 2017, Innovo Property Group and Square Mile Capital bought the 20-acre site at 2505 Bruckner Blvd. for $75 million from Extell Development, with the long-term goal to build a multilevel, 840,000 square-foot warehouse for e-commerce companies. In April 2020, the partners secured $305 million from investors Bank OZK and EverWest Real Estate Investors in construction loans for the project.

The new 2505 Bruckner fulfillment center will feature charging stations for electric vehicles, direct loading onto the second floor, panels for solar power and a roof area that will enable drone deliveries. The siting of the center has direct delivery benefits given its proximity to the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Bruckner Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway.

It would allow for same-day deliveries in the Bronx for the first time, project partners state. The property had previously been used as a parking lot for school buses and trucks before demolition went underway this spring.

The redeveloped property will have cutting-edge, modern features, including direct loading on the first and second floors, each with a 130-foot truck court.

The facility will include 133 exterior parking spaces for trailers and box trucks as well as 664 interior parking spaces for cars and sprinter vans. The building has been designed to add electric car charging stations in the parking structures and solar panels on the roof.

The Whitestone Multiplex Cinema operated at the Bruckner location since 1983, before closing its doors in 2013. The Lightstone Group, a Manhattan-based real estate company, purchased the property in 2012 for $30 million, with plans for a Woodbury Commons-style outlet mall there. When that project fell through, however, Lightstone sold the property in 2015 to Extell Development for $41 million.

Reach Robbie Sequeira at rsequeira@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4599. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes.