Is the van on your street this week coming from Dorado? Since August 5, 2026, some of them have been. That morning Amazon began partial operations at its first distribution and logistics center in Puerto Rico, after roughly two years of construction and an investment of more than $37 million, as El Nuevo Día reported.
This holiday shopping season is the first one with packages sorted in Dorado. It also tests a condition that came with the building. The Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works, known as DTOP, required road improvements on the approach to Dorado from PR-22. A week before the station opened, DTOP said that work was not finished. If you live in Sabanera Dorado or anywhere else that uses the Dorado exit, the station's practical effect on you this season depends on that road work as much as on your delivery times.
How a Finished Building Waited Most of a Year
The building was ready long before it opened. In an October 2025 photo published by El Nuevo Día, the center already looks essentially complete and carries Amazon branding. Here is the sequence that followed:
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| August 2024 | Groundbreaking for the distribution and logistics center |
| November 2025 | The originally expected start of operations, which did not happen |
| March 2026 | Mayor Aníbal José Torres said operations were expected to begin in August |
| April 13, 2026 | OGPe approved the facility's single permit |
| July 29–30, 2026 | DTOP said the required road improvements were still incomplete |
| August 5, 2026 | Partial operations and the first deliveries began |
| September 27, 2026 | Hourly rates for Amazon's seasonal and regular warehouse associates went up |
The building was not what held things up. In March, Torres told Primera Hora that Amazon had complied with the permitting process and that the company itself decided to delay the start. He added that the road changes had played a part. OGPe's approval of the single permit, which El Nuevo Día reported in May, came on April 13, after inspections that required corrective actions.
What DUJ3 Actually Does
Amazon calls the site DUJ3 and lists it at PR-659, Km 1.0, Dorado. Its hiring page puts it about 8 minutes by car from the Dorado town plaza and about 12 minutes from Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve. The facility is a delivery station, and Amazon describes it as "the last stop before packages reach customers." The listed work there covers:
- Receiving truck deliveries of customer packages
- Sorting and scanning orders with handheld devices
- Packing orders into delivery bags and loading vans
- Building, wrapping and moving pallets
Ryan Companies, the construction partner, described the project in 2024 as a 100,000-square-foot delivery station. In other words, it handles the last leg of a delivery. Packages arrive already picked, then get sorted for each route and sent out on vans. The station's activity comes from inbound trucks and outbound delivery vans, and that is why the road conditions attached to it focused on truck access from the expressway.
The Turn in Front of Doramar Plaza
Primera Hora's March report said the remaining work was to widen the road that gives trucks their access, which is also the entrance to the site from the Autopista José de Diego, PR-22, in Dorado. Torres was specific about where that work would go and why it was taking time. Translated from his remarks to Primera Hora:
"They have to make some geometric improvements to the infrastructure, which start precisely next week. We are negotiating with them, because it creates a traffic situation for us, and until we are clear on it and on how we are going to solve it, they cannot start that stage of construction, which is basically widening the turn in front of the Doramar Plaza shopping center."
He also said Amazon would pay for that roadwork.
Four months later, El Nuevo Día quoted DTOP Deputy Secretary Lissette Lugo saying Amazon had not yet completed the improvements the agency set as a condition for opening. The paper described the work as widening and extending lanes to reduce congestion toward Dorado and on PR-22. A July 29 summary from Aquí.PR said the work was meant to ease congestion at Dorado's entrance roundabout and at the PR-22 access. Seven days later, the station started moving packages. El Nuevo Día called that start partial.
Holiday shopping means more packages, and a delivery station's packages leave in vans. The places officials named, the Doramar Plaza turn and the roundabout at the PR-22 access, are on the route many Dorado drivers use for the San Juan commute. If you know that drive from our commuting guide for Sabanera Dorado, those are the spots to watch between now and the end of December.
The town is also doing its own road work. In July, Dorado began a $645,320 road rehabilitation program. The first phase started in the Los Rodríguez community in barrio Espinosa, with paving planned next on PR-694 in Maguayo and on several segments of PR-693, NotiCel reported. PR-694 is the road to the Maguayo pasture farm we wrote about in Dorado's fall season guide.
What It Means for Your Packages
Amazon has not promised a specific delivery window for Puerto Rico. When it announced the project, the company said the station would let it serve customers faster and more efficiently. WAPA's opening-day report put it more carefully. Customers could start to see shorter delivery times on more products, but availability would still depend on inventory and delivery routes.
Some residents saw results right away. Aquí.PR reported that the facility began operating immediately and that residents reported same-day deliveries to their homes on opening day. Those were individual experiences reported at launch. They are not a service level Amazon has committed to. For a gift that has to arrive by a certain date, the delivery estimate at checkout is still the number to rely on.
The station also changes what happens on the island. WAPA noted that Amazon has offered package pickup points in Puerto Rico since 2023. With the new station, more of the logistics work now happens directly on the island.
The Jobs, and the Messages to Ignore
According to Aquí.PR, the project is expected to create more than 100 full-time and part-time jobs, plus more than 200 driver opportunities through Amazon's Delivery Service Partners program. Under that program, outside companies employ many of the drivers in those vans and deliver Amazon's packages under contract. WAPA reported that supervision, logistics and delivery roles were opening up through those partner companies.
The DUJ3 hiring page says candidates must be able to understand and perform the work in Spanish, and that English proficiency is strongly recommended. It also announces higher hourly rates for seasonal and regular warehouse associates, effective September 27, 2026. If someone you know is getting job offers by text, El Nuevo Día published a warning that Amazon recruits for Dorado only through its official site, not by text message.
The Plaza Lights Up Saturday, November 21
The town's own holiday season starts on Saturday, November 21. Dorado's Encendido Navideño is scheduled for 7:00 PM at the Plaza Pública, with Conjunto Quisqueya, Moncho Rivera and Los Cantores de Bayamón, according to MiAgendaPR's 2026 lighting calendar. Discover Puerto Rico's listing shows 6:00 PM in its event-hours field and 7:00 PM in its description, so arriving early is the safer plan. Amazon's hiring page puts the plaza about 8 minutes from the delivery station.
For holiday guests driving in from San Juan, take the Dorado exit off PR-22 and plan on extra time at the Doramar Plaza turn until the widening there is done.
If the new delivery traffic at the Dorado exit has you thinking about how your daily route fits the rest of your plans in town, The Colectivo Group can share what we see on these roads every week from our office on PR-693. Schedule a private showing, and we'll plan the drive with you.
