Fulfillment and Logistics Center Construction in Amarillo

About 500 acres of vacant land sit inside Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, which covers roughly 3,811 acres and has a land development coordinator looking for lessees, according to a 2023 profile. Add the airport's 13,502 foot runway, two interstates and a BNSF main line, and you have the raw material for fulfillment and third-party logistics operations in a part of Texas that is far from the next large city.

A fulfillment center is a warehouse that works like a factory. Product comes in, is put away, picked, packed and shipped on a tight clock. The building has to carry conveyors, sortation, mezzanines, charging stations, dense lighting, data cabling and a lot of electrical load. Floors have to be flat enough for narrow-aisle equipment and automated vehicles.

We build these facilities as shells with robust infrastructure, or as completed operating buildings. Either way, the work begins with the operation. Order volume, picks per hour, returns, peak season and automation plans decide the structure, not the other way around.

The Amarillo Economic Development Corporation lists BNSF Railway access, I-40, I-27 and the airport as logistics assets. TxDOT says about 124 miles are designated and signed as I-27 from I-40 in Amarillo to the south side of Lubbock, part of a system Congress designated a Future Interstate in the fiscal year 2022 omnibus bill and formerly called the Ports-to-Plains Corridor. A fulfillment operator serving a wide stretch of plains can place a building where two long corridors meet.

Population is also growing at the edges. The City Council approved nearly $3 million for about 14,000 feet of 12-inch water pipe in northwest Amarillo to support growth of over 1,000 new homes and multiple businesses. Growth like that means new parcel volume close to home, and a local last-mile operation can serve it. We do not forecast demand for a client. We point to public facts and help you test them.

Fulfillment projects often change late. A customer signs, a technology vendor updates a specification, or an automation supplier needs new floor loads. We build the schedule with decision dates for each item that can change, and we hold those dates firmly. Structure and slab are fixed early, while interiors, mezzanines and racking are flexible for longer.

Peak season is the hard deadline. If the building must work by October, we plan from that date backward and include a buffer for weather and for equipment testing. Equipment suppliers need access before the building is complete, and we coordinate their schedules with ours. A building that is physically complete but not yet tested is not ready for peak volume.

Electrical service is the heaviest item. Conveyors, sorters, charging stations and lighting add up quickly, and a utility service that is too small is a costly mistake. We work with the electrical engineer and utility on load and delivery, and we release long-lead switchgear early.

Floors come next. Automated systems need floors flat and level to tight tolerances, and a poor slab will keep costing money. We place slabs with laser screeds, control curing and cut joints at the right time. Mezzanines, either steel or pre-engineered, are common in logistics and fulfillment centers, and we coordinate their columns with the racking plan. When the building is a standard box, our warehouse construction and distribution center construction pages cover the shell in more detail.

The most common client is a third-party logistics operator, followed by regional retailers, wholesalers and e-commerce sellers. Some clients are local companies that moved from a rented warehouse to their own building. Others are national operators who want a regional hub. Our logistics and distribution overview describes how we work with each group, and our retail chain experience helps with store-supply operations.

We keep proposals simple for first-time owners: a clear scope, a unit price for the shell, and allowances for items that depend on the operator. Specialized automation vendors are part of the team from the beginning.

The floor, the electrical system and the fire protection system are the main differences from a basic warehouse. Mezzanines add structure and code requirements, including egress and fire separation. Automation adds slab, power and data costs. Dock count adds cost too, as does the truck court size.

We help owners decide what to build now and what to leave as a space for the future. A conduit and a slab edge that anticipate a second mezzanine cost little today. Rebuilding them later costs a lot. We keep a list of such items in the estimate so you can choose.

Fire protection deserves a separate note. Sprinkler design in a fulfillment building depends on commodity class, storage height and whether plastic totes and packaging are stored in racks, and those answers change when the tenant changes. A system designed for the lightest use can force an expensive retrofit. We ask for the likely product mix and size the system for the worse realistic case, and we confirm the approach with the fire marshal before drawings are finished. Emergency egress from mezzanines and pick modules is the next code point, and it can eat floor area, so it belongs in the layout from the first sketch.

Roof and envelope choices matter more than they look. Large dark roofs carry heavy rooftop equipment, and hail in Potter and Randall counties can damage membranes. The airport recorded a record 83 mph gust in March 2025. We choose roof systems and rooftop supports with both in mind.

Send order volume, equipment plans and the date you need to ship. We will return a price range, a schedule and the risks we see.

How do you handle automation vendors?

We bring them in early, ask for their floor, power, data and clearance requirements, and put those into the design. Their installation schedule becomes part of ours.

How flat does the floor need to be?

Automated vehicles and narrow-aisle trucks need strict flatness and levelness. The specification comes from the equipment supplier, and we place and test the slab to meet it.

Can I build at the airport?

Airport parcels are leased and have their own review steps. The airport reports vacant land and a coordinator seeking lessees. We help you through the lease, design and permit sequence.

How much power do I need?

It depends on the equipment. We work with an engineer and the utility to estimate the load and to find out how long delivery will take, because that time may control the schedule.

What is a realistic schedule?

For a new building, planning through turnover often takes most of a year or more. Equipment testing is the last step and should be scheduled with care.