The unions had concerns about whether any local workers would be used to build the 343,447-square-foot FedEx warehouse
HAMILTON -- Plans to build a 343,447-square-foot FedEx distribution center on Route 130 were given the green light last week despite opposition from unions and residents who had concerns about local hiring and traffic.
In this file photo, a FedEx driver unloads his truck at the FedEx sort facility at the Oakland International Airport. (Photo by Justin Sullivan | Getty Images) The Hamilton planning board gave near-unanimous approval to SunCap Property Group, a Charlotte, N.C.-based developer that has built more than a dozen warehouses for FedEx across the country. Charles Whalen was the only member who voted against it.
It will be built on a 68.8-acre site across from the Shoppes of Hamilton, which for years had been eyed as a possible location for a 500,000-square-foot retail center with Target as its anchor store.
But the proposal was met with resistance on Thursday.
Though he could not attend, Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton), who is president of the Mercer-Burlington Building Trades Council, put out a call to have about 425 union laborers attend.
They advocated that local workers be hired for the job and the contaminated site be properly remediated.
"If local people are working on the job and local people are paid a fair wage and fair benefits and trained to safely do the remediation and construction of the site, everybody benefits," DeAngelo said Tuesday. "We just don't leave the community when the job is done. We continue to invest the monies raised on that job back into the community."
The planning board can't mandate that SunCap hires local workers, but DeAngelo is hoping the developer would choose to do so.
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Fred Dumont, a Hamilton resident and business manager for Heat & Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Local 89, said it wasn't a union-nonunion issue.
"It's the hiring of the local workers," he said. "If a nonunion local contractor came in and did work, that would be fine by me. But it's these large billion-dollar companies that come into our area and bring workers from out of state who build these structures then leave."
DeAngelo and Dumont also had concerns about the warehouse becoming the next Amazon, whose 1.2-million-square-foot fulfillment center created a traffic gridlock for residents in Robbinsville and Upper Freehold.
Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, the firm that was hired to do the traffic study for what is now the Amazon site, is the project engineer for this warehouse.
"I can only imagine how busy FedEx is around the holiday season," Dumont said, adding that it would only make traffic on Route 130 worse. "The Shoppes of Hamilton is not a successful market because of the traffic issues connected to that part of Route 130."
Resident Vinnie Capodanno said he felt like the planning board rushed to make a decision.
"I'm not saying they should stop them from building it, but I also feel you should make sure that everything is in compliance before you give them to go-ahead," he said.
He also said that Hamilton officials should have held out for other "research and development" proposals that could have brought a better facility and jobs to the township than a warehouse.
"The township was in a rush to put in anything they can get, but I don't think the future of this town is going to be benefited by what they're doing right now," Capodanno said. "These warehouses come and go and they do not attract nice jobs."
When Mayor Kelly Yaede first announced SunCap's plans in October, she touted the township's ability to attract Fortune 500 companies and said the project would revitalize the site and lead to significant traffic improvements on Route 130.
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.