WESTBOROUGH – A plan to build a new 100,000 square-foot building next to Westborough’s existing Amazon Robotics facility is moving forward after obtaining unanimous Planning Board approval on Tuesday.

Plans were submitted by Atlantic Management Corporation and its entity Atlantic-Westborough Realty LLC. They call for a structure at 54 Otis Street, which will represent an expansion of Amazon’s existing site at 50 Otis Street.

“The Planning Board finds and determines…that the project constitutes a suitable development and will not result in substantial detriment to the neighborhood,” Town Planner Jim Robbins read on May 3.

What is proposed

Atlantic’s team first presented plans to the Planning Board on April 5. 

As attorney Robert Buckley described it, they were proposing to build a companion and supplemental research and development facility that would tie into the work being done at Amazon Robotics.

“We have had this in the planning for quite some time,” Buckley said.

Atlantic-Westboro Realty LLC purchased the site in September 2020. According to the developer’s application, the project will sit on a site that will ultimately span just under 11 acres.

The site is currently occupied by a home and garage, which will be demolished according to the application.

Amazon has previously used the property as a temporary parking lot during the construction of its robotics facility, engineer William Park said.

Plans show a building with an 81,900-square-foot footprint and a 20,000-square-foot second level. There will be 186 parking spaces.

Park said there are also plans to install infrastructure for electric vehicle charging stations.

There will be one driveway into the site, though Park noted that there will also be a shared driveway with Amazon Robotics.

Truck traffic is set to flow through that shared driveway between the two sites, Park said.

“It’s a much more friendly turning movement into the proposed loading dock,” he continued.

Robert Michaud, the managing principal of MDM Transportation Consultants, separately presented the results of a transportation impact study on April 5.

According to his presentation, the developers are anticipating 766 daily trips, including 113 trips during the morning weekday peak hour and 104 trips during the evening weekday peak hour.

It’s estimated that the building will have about 230 employees.