Amazon�s plans to put a regional cargo hub at Newark Liberty International Airport have been grounded.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the airport�s operator, said in a statement Thursday that negotiations over the past year have failed to produce an agreement with the global shipper and retailer.

�Over the past year, the Port Authority and Amazon have engaged in good-faith negotiations,� Port Authority Chief Operating Officer Huntley Lawrence said in the statement. �Unfortunately, the Port Authority and Amazon have been unable to reach an agreement on final lease terms and mutually concluded that further negotiations will not resolve the outstanding issues.�

Last August, the Port Authority�s board approved negotiations on a 20-year lease for two 1990s-era buildings at the airport that Amazon was to redevelop into a state-of-the-art, 250,000-square-foot (23,225-square-meter) air cargo campus.

At the time, it was estimated the redevelopment alone would cost Amazon $125 million. The company would have paid $150 million as an initial payment and $157 million in rent over the next two decades. The facility was to have opened next year.

Through a spokesperson, Amazon said it was disappointed about the failure to reach an agreement and was reviewing alternative locations for a cargo hub, but didn�t specify where.

Some labor and environmental groups and local officials had opposed the plans, claiming the hub would have increased congestion in a lower-income area already burdened with truck traffic from nearby Port Newark. They also had criticized Amazon�s working conditions for its employees.

(AP)