Amazon distribution center in Bethpage to open before the fall

Amazon.com Inc.’s first distribution facility on Long Island will begin operation “before the fall,” a company spokesman said.

The 161,360-square-foot building, located at 201 Grumman Rd. W. in Bethpage, “will primarily serve customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties,” according to the spokesman.

Amazon signed a lease on the property in March.

The building was used as a distribution hub by Goya Foods Inc. until July. Goya, a maker of Spanish, Mexican and Hispanic foods, moved the operation to Jersey City, New Jersey, where it has a corporate headquarters.

Amazon, with net sales of $107 billion in 2015, still lags behind the world’s No. 1 retailer, Walmart Stores Inc. based in Bentonville, Arkansas, which posted $478.6 billion. Still, fast-growing Amazon had a recent stock market capitalization of $281.8 billion, eclipsing Walmart’s $217.6 billion.

The property’s owner, Bethpage-based commercial developer Steel Equities, secured tax concessions from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency as it sought a tenant to succeed Goya.

The IDA package also covered a new 44,000-square-foot structure on the property as a new location for FedEx Freight.

With Victor Ocasio

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.