amazon at uab 3 clues pointing towards Amazon's expansion on Lakeshore Parkway — Zavian Tate, a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, pushes a large Amazon Dash button, in Birmingham, Ala. Photo via Bloomberg.com

Big things are happening in Bessemer and it just got a lot more interesting. A new 37-acre facility on Lakeshore Parkway is being built but what company is moving in? Let’s take a look at what we know so far.

We’re keeping our eyes set on 4201 Lakeshore Parkway. According to the Birmingham Business Journal, Ryan Companies US, Inc. proposed a large-sized facility project on Daniel Payne Drive. Now the same company has their sights set on Bessemer for a similar project and all signs are pointing towards Amazon.

Let’s take a look at the clues pointing towards Amazon

1. Bessemer is already home to Amazon’s Fulfillment Center

Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley with Bo Jackson at the Amazon Fulfillment Center site. Photo by Jacob Blankenship

Last year, we gave you a first look into the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Bessemer. The state-of-the-art facility employs over 1,500 people and is as big as 14 football fields.

2. It’s all in the code name

Amazon groundbreaking — At the October 2018 groundbreaking. Photo via Pat Byington for Bham Now

Code names? This is starting to sound like a spy movie. The developer, Ryan Cos. has dubbed the mystery project on Lakeshore Parkway as “DBM6”. Now get a load of this! Coding for Amazon facilities are similar. For example, Atlanta’s distribution operations are coded as “DAT1”, “DAT2” and “DAT3”.

3. It’s just the right size for a new Amazon facility

The scale of this mystery project on Lakeshore Parkway isn’t as big as the fulfillment center but a permit filed with Alabama’s Department of Environmental Management shows that the site will include a 112,000-square-foot facility.

1hb yZfMPYZFloo6Wr3cFOA 3 clues pointing towards Amazon's expansion on Lakeshore Parkway — Rendering for Century Plaza development provided by Birmingham City Council in news release

Even real estate experts say that the size of the facility is just right for van staging areas which are a hallmark of Amazon facilities around the U.S. After speculation of Amazon being one of the tenants of the “Project Magic” initiative at Century Plaza, real estate experts think that this is a dead giveaway for a Lakeshore Parkway extension. After all, inventory-related companies like Amazon are having to expand to meet increased demand in online shopping during the pandemic.