In its application to the Hamburg Industrial Development Agency (HIDA), Bayview Road Associates, LLC, an agent of Amazon.com, proposes to develop a 181,500 square-foot, “last-mile” warehouse on roughly 58 acres at the corner of Lake Shore Road and Bayview Road in Hamburg, NY.

Last-mile facilities function as small delivery hubs that are close to – or even embedded in – communities and neighborhoods. Because of their proximity to households, last-mile hubs improve Amazon’s ability to deliver products quickly, which is seen in the company’s aggressive expansion of same-day and one-day shipping options for “Prime” customers.

Yet, while last-mile hubs mean that some regional Amazon customers might get their orders delivered slightly faster, the already wealthy corporation’s quarterly sales just topped $100 billion for the first time; it is under seemingly constant fire for its treatment of workers; and, by flooding the market with fast-shipping services, it is putting excessive pressure on the environment and small businesses.

For these reasons and more, it is essential to ask whether subsidizing last-mile hubs – or any Amazon development project – is a wise use of a local community’s prime public dollars. The Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab’s factsheet offers some initial answers to that question by examining the jobs that Amazon proposes to create (as described in its HIDA application), relative to the costs of the proposed tax incentives. Click below to access the PDF report: