SEATTLE – A mysterious “Project X” could be a new Amazon drive-up grocery store in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, reports GeekWire.com, noting that newly discovered planning documents suggest the e-commerce company’s new venture. 

“Permit filings uncovered by Geek Wire show plans to renovate the former Louie’s Cuisine of China site, at 5100 15th Ave. N.W. in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, into a 9,759-square-foot retail space where customers can pick up groceries that they’ve ordered online, in what the project team calls ‘a new model of grocery shopping,’” writes the news source.

The plans are so under wraps that even the site crew isn’t aware of what they’re building. “No idea,” one worker told the news source when asked what would be going into the building. “We had to sign our life away. Half the guys in there don’t even know what they are working on.”

GeekWire notes that the description of the project matches the same language contained in planning documents for Amazon drive-up grocery stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to the news source, here’s what’s contained in the planning documents for the Seattle location:

“When placing an online order, customers will schedule a specific 15-minute to two-hour pick up window. Peak time slots will sell out, which will help manage traffic flow within the customer parking adjacent to the building. When picking up purchased items, customers can either drive into a designated parking area with eight parking stalls where the purchased items will be delivered to their cars or they can walk into the retail area to pick up their items. Customers will also be able to walk into the retail room to place orders on a tablet. Walk in customers will have their products delivered to them in the retail room.”

The news source continues that the drive-up grocery further represents Amazon’s “commitment to the brick and mortar realm for the online shopping giant.”

In October 2013, NACS Magazine explored Amazon’s expansion into same-day grocery delivery business.