Amazon to set up delivery hub at Cody airport
POWELL — The e-commerce giant Amazon is establishing a physical presence in Cody to enable faster deliveries in the area. The company got an official green light last week to set up a miniature distribution hub at the Yellowstone Regional Airport.
Amazon will be installing a 40-foot long storage unit and concrete pad in a gravel parking area south of the main terminal. A box truck will deliver a daily load of Amazon goods to the unmanned container, which will then be picked up by a small fleet of vehicles and delivered to local customers within a 60-mile radius.
Amazon and airport officials expect between six and 24 vehicles to visit the unit on an average day, with no more than 50 such trips.
The area, which had been used as a staging spot for construction equipment, is being leased to Amazon for $350 a month, or roughly 44 cents a square foot, the highest paid lease for undeveloped land.
It’s a one-year deal, though either party can scrap it with 45 days of notice.
“There’s not a lot of risk there,” YRA Director Aaron Buck told the airport board, “and there’s a lot of opportunity to grow our relationship with a company that could be growing in Cody.”
The board unanimously approved the arrangement at an April 9 meeting; a couple of members expressed enthusiasm about the possibility of Amazon eventually making a bigger investment by building in the airport’s business park or even flying in cargo.
On Thursday, the City of Cody’s Planning and Zoning Board also approved the plans for the storage unit by a 4-0 vote.
Tareq Wafaie, Amazon’s economic development manager for the Mountain West, told the planning board that the project would help businesses grow their market share and help Amazon serve its customers “quickly and efficiently.” “... although it is a minimal investment on the property here, it will impact a lot of lives for small and medium-sized businesses,” Wafaie said.
While Amazon is a corporate behemoth, it says more than 60% of its store sales come from millions of independent sellers across the globe; that includes 2,500 sellers in Wyoming who sold more than 12 million items in 2023, Wafaie told the Cody Journal.
He told the publication that Amazon has invested more than $30 million in Wyoming over the past couple of years — including by adding delivery stations in Gillette, Casper and Rock Springs.
The company also opened a $23 million, 40,000 square foot warehouse in Billings last fall, which, according to the Journal, spurred the expansion into Cody.
The prefabricated storage unit coming to YRA features a series of 12 small bays. It will only be used by Amazon personnel and contractors for drop offs and pickups.
The unit will be anchored to a new concrete pad that the company will pour just east of Roger Sedam Drive — the main access road that leads from U.S. Highway 14/16/20E to the airport terminal.
Buck said he suggested Amazon consider an area in front of the old terminal, but “they really wanted the spot here.”
Cody Mayor Lee Ann Reiter, who sits on the YRA board, noted the arrangement will result in more traffic and some wear and tear to the road, but she still supported leasing the space.
Pickups and deliveries will be handled through Amazon’s Flex program — an Uber-/DoorDashlike system in which drivers use their personal vehicles and an app to deliver Amazon packages.
Buck first brought Amazon’s plans to the airport board in February.
“Forward Cody told them that the airport would be a great place for it,” he said, “so I’ve been working with them for a while.”
The board finalized the deal in April after a couple members had a Zoom meeting with the company; board member Amir Haskic said he came away from the conversation impressed by the potential for future expansion.
Shortly before the vote to approve the lease, board chair Bob Redmond mentioned that he’d spotted many of the company’s warehouses on a recent trip to Texas, recalling that the facilities went “from pretty big to really big.”
“They’re not doing anything small,” Redmond said of Amazon, adding, “It’s only natural that they would come here and [it’s] probably a good idea to get in their pocket as long as they’re going to be here.”
Barring any hiccups, Buck expects Amazon’s new storage unit to be in place by July 1.
This story was published on May 20, 2025.