Amazon's slowed-down sales were the last straw for one of its "last-mile" delivery centers in Oklahoma City.

The retail behemoth, saddled with too much space taken in response to the pandemic-shop-at-home phenomenon, which dropped off as COVID-19 got under control and people went back to shopping at stores, has been closing, delaying and canceling warehouses across the country.

The closure here was the 60,000-square-foot "last-mile" delivery center at 4401 E Hefner Road. The space is on the market for lease by CBRE Group.

The delivery center, or delivery station, as Amazon calls them, was one of three in Oklahoma City, opening in April 2018.

“We regularly look at how we can improve the experience for our employees, partners, drivers, and customers, and that includes upgrading our facilities," spokesman Steve Kelly said. "As part of that effort, we closed a delivery station in Oklahoma City off of East Hefner Road and offered all employees the opportunity to transfer to two different delivery stations close by."

More:Commercial real estate transactions from around the Oklahoma City metro area

When Amazon first arrived in Oklahoma City, it said same-day delivery likely would follow close behind the opening of its fulfillment center. That was three years ago. But even now, despite same-day delivery options from other retailers like Walmart, same-day service is not readily available for many products from Amazon.

Amazon's last-mile delivery centers are designed to service a 45-mile radius, according to MWPVL International, a supply chain and logistics firm that tracks Amazon’s distribution network.

"The delivery station's primary role is to sort packages for outbound routes to enable last-mile delivery to customers within a tightly defined urban area," the firm says. "Often deliveries are performed by Amazon Delivery Service Partners with the Amazon Sprinter vans (or by multiple local courier companies that are contracted by Amazon to service specific routes though this appears to be less prevalent in the U.S.) and also by independent Amazon Flex drivers."

Amazon said in September it was closing 21 warehouses, canceling 21, and putting 27 on hold, most of them delivery centers, but none were in Oklahoma, so the closure here may come as a surprise.

"Amazon’s business boomed during the pandemic, and they almost doubled their square footage across the country from 2019 through 2021," said Jim Parrack, senior vice president and retail specialist with commercial real estate brokerage Price Edwards & Co. "But that level of sales growth was unsustainable and has returned to near pre-pandemic levels.

"The end result was too much warehouse and delivery space, especially in the pipeline. Oklahoma City clearly has a significant Amazon presence and the Hefner facility was part of their last-mile delivery, so it makes sense that’s where their pull-back here would be. Don’t worry though, Amazon isn’t going anywhere and they’ll continue to grow, just at a slower rate than the last few years."

Amazon still has plenty of warehouse operations in Oklahoma City

Amazon still has 3,458,400 square feet of warehouse space in nine buildings under lease in Oklahoma, occupied starting in December 2017, and as recently as the fourth quarter of 2021, according to MWPVL International.

The firm says Amazon now has these warehouse operations in Oklahoma:

• A 312,000-square-foot delivery center at 6801 S Air Depot Blvd., which opened in June 2020.

• A 121,700-square-foot delivery center at 6101 SW 44, opened in September 2020.

• A 60,000-square-foot delivery center in Tulsa, opened in November 2019.

• A 9,700-square-foot delivery center in Grove, opened in the fourth quarter of 2021.

• A 300,000-square-foot "middle-mile" sortation center at 1414 S Council Road, opened in December 2017.

• A 275,000-square-foot sortation center in Tulsa, opened in the fourth quarter of 2021.

• A 640,000-square-foot fulfillment center at 9201 S Portland Ave., opened in August 2019.

• A 1,100,000-square-foot fulfillment center at 8991 S Portland Ave., opened in the fourth quarter of 2021.

• A 640,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Tulsa, opened in August 2020.

Senior Business Writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at rmize@oklahoman.com. Sign up here for his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Amazon delivery center closes in Oklahoma City