Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) Amazon announced plans to expand its investment in Mississippi by opening a new delivery station in Lee County. This new facility will be approximately 96,000 square feet located within the Turner Industrial Park in Saltillo, Mississippi. Launch plans for this delivery station are in the very early stages, with renovations to the existing building scheduled to start in the coming weeks.
“This last mile facility will allow us to better serve customers in Lee County and the surrounding area,” said Jessica Breaux, senior manager of economic development for Amazon. “We’re grateful for our partnership with the Community Development Foundation and Lee County. We look forward to sharing more details about this facility in the future.”
The new last-mile facility will help power the last mile of Amazon’s fulfillment process by enabling fast, everyday delivery directly to customers’ doorstep. Packages are transported to delivery stations from Amazon fulfillment and sortation centers and then employees process customer packages for last-mile delivery. Most employees in customer fulfillment and transportation earn between $17 and $28 per hour.
“We are excited to welcome Amazon to Lee County,” said Wesley Webb, President of the Lee County Board of Supervisors. “Amazon’s presence in our community will help attract other major brands to locate here. This will also increase their service capacity to the region. We want to especially thank our partners at Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) for helping us and assisting with product development for our recruitment of companies.”
Since 2010, Amazon has created more than 6,000 full- and part-time jobs in Mississippi and invested more than $3.5 billion across the state, including infrastructure and compensation to our employees. These investments have contributed an additional $3.2 billion to the Mississippi economy and have helped create more than 11,700 indirect jobs on top of Amazon’s direct hires—from jobs in construction and logistics to professional services. In addition, more than 1,500 independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses—in Mississippi are selling to customers in Amazon’s store, creating thousands of additional jobs across the state.
“CDF began investing in the construction of speculative shell buildings several years ago for the purpose of recruiting new companies to our community,” said CDF Board Chair Charlie Kinney. “This investment is paying great dividends now as a global brand such as Amazon has decided to locate here into one of our buildings.”
*Press release courtesy of The Community Development Foundation in Tupelo
