Montreal-based Broccolini has entered the Atlantic Canada market by breaking ground on YHZ2, Amazon’s first robotics fulfillment centre in Nova Scotia, spanning 2.2 million square feet in Dartmouth’s Burnside Industrial Park.

Broccolini executive vice-president of real estate development James Beach told RENX this will be the 78th project the company will deliver for Amazon in Canada, ranging from cross-dock facilities to next-generation distribution hubs, as part of a partnership dating back to 2018. 

“The company's been around since 1949 and probably two-thirds of our business annually is repeat customers,” Beach said. “For us, there's no better compliment than having a client ask us to build another building for them.”

Broccolini — which offers fully integrated solutions in investment, development, construction and property management across the industrial, residential, commercial and office sectors — has been appointed both developer and builder for the Burnside facility.

Broccolini will oversee every phase from development through to completion and its construction team is engaging Nova Scotia trades and suppliers to deliver the project.

The site fit Amazon’s needs

“We've been looking with Amazon at developing something on the east coast for a number of years,” Beach said. “Amazon wanted to ensure they had the right site and the right program for a strategic location in terms of being able to access infrastructure that was in place and a labour pool.”

Amazon acquired the site from Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) after doing its due diligence and deciding to move forward at Burnside. It’s the largest industrial park north of Boston and east of Montreal, with almost 1,400 enterprises and approximately 30,000 employees. 

Burnside is adjacent to five 100-series highways and home to the largest concentration of truck transportation in Atlantic Canada. It’s serviced by Canadian National Railway Co. mainline, siding and common user facilities.

Burnside businesses are located within 10 to 15 minutes travel time to downtown Halifax, Halifax Stanfield International Airport and the Port of Halifax. The park is served by public transit links, including Bus Rapid Transit.

“We've built a really strong relationship with HRM over the last few years and it's refreshing to see a municipality take a level of entrepreneurial spirit and a philosophy of ‘If we build it, they will come,’” Beach said.

“HRM was front-ending all the costs of servicing the roadway work and the incredible amount of cut and fill to balance out pad-ready sites and then to offer for sale. They went in almost like a developer and built out the infrastructure and then put up the 'for sale' sign.”

The new facility

The 2.2-million-square-foot building will be what Amazon calls a Generation 14 robotics facility, which means employees will be working alongside the most advanced technology in the network. Amazon claims the facility will create more than 1,000 full-time jobs and significantly improve delivery speed and product selection for customers across the region.

“There seems to be a misconception that, if there are robotics within a facility, the head count for humans declines,” Beach said. “This is a collaboration between humans and robots to ensure maximum throughput efficiency.”

Broccolini will deliver the building in a capacity where it’s about 95 per cent complete and sufficient for the next installer to bring in its tradespeople and equipment to fill out the interior, according to Beach.

“We'll continue to manage that process from a health and safety perspective,” he noted. “It's our responsibility to ensure a safe site and we'll do that until the building is fully operational.”

Beach expects the facility to be fully enclosed and visually complete by Q3 2027. It’s expected to be fully completed and operational in 2029.

Amazon has made direct investments of more than $65 billion in its Canadian operations, and a workforce that has grown to more than 46,000 people, since 2010.

Nova Scotia is a growth area for Broccolini

Burnside’s Amazon facility is Broccolini’s first project in Nova Scotia, but the company is looking to take on further opportunities in the province as it has previously done in other parts of Canada.

“We expanded first through Quebec into Ontario, all the way to southern Ontario, and we're actively out west right now looking at a handful of opportunities that align perfectly with our continued growth model,” Beach said.

“Typically, entry into a new market isn’t a 2.2-million-square-foot complex robotics facility. It might be something a little bit smaller. 

“But given the relationship we have with Amazon, we wanted to be able to serve them wherever they had a need, and this allowed us to get to know the market, the municipality, the levels of government and the local tradespeople. It’s a great way to enter the market and we're absolutely pursuing other projects and opportunities.

“We’re here to stay,” Beach added regarding future expansion in Nova Scotia, where Broccolini has joined the provincial construction association. “It's not one and done. It's the first of many.”