Staples Distribution Center

Project summary provided by submitting company.

When an important customer wants an extremely large building for an automated distribution center, Alan Lewis knew what the development, design and construction team’s response would be: Let’s just do it. The preferred site was formerly a contaminated brownfield on Westinghouse Boulevard. No problem, says Lewis, development partner at The Keith Corp. in Charlotte. The result was pleasing to the developer and the customer, Lewis says. “The project was delivered on time and on budget thanks to utilizing tilt-up concrete construction.” Completed early in 2018, the Staples Inc. center is a part of a revamp of the Framingham, Massachusetts-based company’s distribution plan. The idea is to move toward more automated and efficient systems for fulfillment. The building is huge, measuring 600,000 square feet, with a 300,00 sf mezzanine and filled with robotics and an automated picking and conveying line with a laser-guided system, requiring extremely tight tolerances on the elevated composite slab. After the building was complete, Keith Corp. sold it for $54 million, according to Mecklenburg County real estate records.