Amazon will experiment with a new approach to local deliveries at a shuttered facility in Seattle’s Ballard neighbourhood, testing a retail-style delivery hub designed for rapid dispatch of Amazon Flex drivers who will retrieve orders and deliver them to nearby customers within minutes.
Permit filings describe the planned operation as a store-format facility where no retail customers will ever enter. Instead, Amazon employees will fulfill online orders by picking and bagging items in a back-of-house stockroom area, placing completed orders on shelves at the front of the space, and handing them to Amazon Flex drivers for expedited delivery to surrounding neighbourhoods within sub-one-hour timeframes.
The documents outline a streamlined workflow in which drivers arrive at the facility, scan into the system using their smartphones, retrieve a packaged customer order from designated shelving, confirm the order details with an associate, and depart within approximately two minutes to complete deliveries. The operation is expected to run continuously 24 hours daily, seven days weekly, maintaining constant availability for order fulfillment and dispatch.
Amazon characterises the planned operation as functioning “much like a convenience store” in one filing, though the resemblance lies in layout and product accessibility rather than customer access, as the facility will remain closed to the public.
The plans for the former Amazon Fresh Pickup site, located at 5100 15th Avenue Northwest, have not been previously reported publicly. Internal documentation uses the project code “ZST4,” with the “Z” designation representing a new category of Amazon facility that aligns with the recently introduced “Amazon Now” delivery service, short delivery blocks under one hour duration from dedicated pickup locations rather than traditional warehouse facilities.
Recent screenshots shared by Amazon Flex drivers on social media platforms show Amazon Now operating at similarly coded sites including ZST3 in Seattle’s University District and ZPL3 in Philadelphia, suggesting the Ballard project represents part of a broader rollout of small, hyperlocal delivery operations in urban markets across multiple cities.
The initiative forms part of Amazon’s larger strategic push into “sub-same-day” delivery, in which smaller urban fulfillment centres maintain inventories of limited high-demand items enabling faster turnaround times compared to traditional warehouse operations located in industrial areas far from residential neighbourhoods. The company has been testing different approaches in this operational realm for several years, searching for the optimal combination of logistics efficiency and economic viability.
Amazon is far from alone in exploring new models for ultrafast delivery in increasingly competitive urban logistics markets. Competitors including GoPuff, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Glovo, and FreshDirect all operate variations of quick-commerce or micro-fulfillment networks, often using partnerships with existing retailers or operating “dark stores,” retail-style storefronts that remain closed to the public and serve solely to fulfill online orders at high speed.
Amazon’s Flex programme launched ten years ago as the company sought flexible delivery capacity beyond its employed driver workforce. Flex drivers are independent contractors who deliver packages using their personal vehicles, signing up for delivery blocks through the Amazon Flex smartphone application. The programme has often been described as functioning like Uber for package delivery, connecting independent drivers with delivery opportunities.
What distinguishes the new Seattle facility, and the Amazon Now initiative more broadly, is the emphasis on speed and operational simplicity. As described in permit filings, the model emphasises rapid handoffs between fulfillment staff and drivers, with drivers cycling through the facility in minutes rather than spending extended periods loading vehicles for longer delivery routes covering broader geographic areas.
The permit filings emphasise that some delivery drivers will use personal e-bikes and scooters to complete deliveries rather than automobiles, reflecting both the smaller physical size of individual orders and the short distances involved when serving dense urban neighbourhoods where customers may live only blocks from the fulfillment location.
Supply chain analyst Marc Wulfraat of MWPVL International, who tracks Amazon’s extensive logistics network, stated the approach resembles the company’s legacy Prime Now and Amazon Fresh local delivery sites, with the operational twist of functioning more like a retail store than a traditional warehouse based on Amazon’s descriptions in planning documents.
