Town Manager Mathew Mendisco confirmed Tuesday that Hayden is in communication with Amazon regarding plans to build a new 40,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution “micro-center” near the Yampa Valley Regional Airport.

“I got their permission to acknowledge that we’ve been in communication with them, and that Amazon is working through the appropriate development process to identify how to best deliver for customers in Northwest Colorado,” Mendisco said Tuesday afternoon. “This is (Amazon) identifying that they had some gaps in the Northwest Region.”

Mendisco said the Hayden location will allow the company to improve service to areas including Craig to the west, Baggs and southwest Wyoming to the north, as well as the Steamboat Springs area just a few miles to the east.

Mendisco said the developers first expressed interest in building an e-commerce warehouse and distribution center at the site in February. He said he has been in contact with officials working on the plans for the project since that time. He said plans for the project, referred to as “Project Elkhead,” were approved at the Hayden Planning Commission’s last meeting.

“It’s exciting and it is going to be a huge economic boost,” Mendisco said. “It’s not just a big deal for Hayden, but for the entire region. I even think it’ll do things like help with the post office — it will make things more feasible for our region.”

He said the developer, Bucknell Industrial, is in the process of working through a few small concerns raised by the commission, and once those have been resolved the developer will apply for a building permit from Routt County.  

“I think they want to be on track to break ground as early as they can next year, with final delivery of the warehouse by the end of the year — if all stars align — or maybe early 2027,” Mendisco said.

Mendisco said that once completed, the 40,350-square-foot warehouse will become the anchor of the new Northwest Colorado Business Park. The building will also have a 4,450-square-foot van canopy that covers 13 van loading spaces, parking for 55 vans and seven truck doors with three trailer parking spaces. There will also be abundant employee parking with 123 spaces at what Amazon defines as a “micro center.”

“Grand Junction just opened one recently that’s about the same size,” Mendisco said. “(Amazon) is identifying these very specific kinds of climates where they just don’t have as effective delivery. This helps them get their delivery times down, helps them relieve congestion, and it helps them do a whole host of other things.”

The proposed new warehouse is one of many additions expected at the Northwest Colorado Business Park, which is located across the street from the Yampa Valley Regional Airport’s main terminal. Mendisco said interest in the park has been strong, and landing this “anchor tenant” will help.  

“It’s going to be incredible,” Mendisco said. “Not only because of jobs, but for the coal transition in the town of Hayden and the assessed value increase. I think once people realize that this anchor tenant may be there, it’s going to generate quite a bit of interest in wanting to possibly be near somebody like that and it will help us fill out the business park, which was the vision for this place in the first place. So things are working out.”