Construction is underway on the massive $181 million Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center on the West Plains that’s expected to be completed this summer and fully staffed in the fall.

The 2.6 million-square-foot, four-story robotic fulfillment center is being developed on a nearly 80-acre site at 10010 W. Geiger Blvd, northeast of Interstate 90-Medical Lake interchange and just southwest of Spokane International Airport.

The project has been under an aggressive development schedule since the Spokane County planning process for it started last April, and construction is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 31.

The Portland offices of T.C. Pursuit Services and Trammel Crow Co. are developing the fulfillment center. Layton Construction Co., of Sandy Utah, is the contractor on the project, and the Seattle office of DLR Group is the project architect.

Amazon estimates the construction project is generating more than 700 construction-related jobs. Local subcontractors involved in the project include Piersol Construction Inc., of Airway Heights; Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane; and McKinstry Co., which has a prominent Spokane presence.

Coffman Engineers Inc., Geo Engineers Inc., and J-U-B Engineers Inc., which all have Spokane offices, have provided engineering services for the project.

Amazon’s fulfillment centers stock popular items, and employees pick, pack, and ship them to customers.

Plans show the primary structure will have four floors with the nearly 700,000-square-foot ground floor designated as the process level, including a 40,000 square feet of office area. The other three levels, each 648,000 square feet in size, are described as robotic storage platforms.

Amazon says the Spokane fulfillment center will employ more than 1,500 people, which the Seattle-based online mega-retailer plans to hire before the holiday rush. That employee count could go higher, though, as a traffic analysis submitted to Spokane County’s planning staff is based on estimates of a typical employee count of 2,200 with a peak season employment of nearly 3,000.

Site plans for the facility show nearly 1,900 parking spaces.

The facility will have a total of 63 truck landings in its shipping and receiving bays, and parking for more than 300 semitrailers.

The project site is owned by Boston-based real estate investment company CF Hippolyta Spokane LLC, which bought and consolidated five parcels of land in July from Spokane real estate investment companies Jolt Developments LLC and West Plains Development LLC for a total of $4 million, with an agreement to lease the site to Amazon.