Amazon’s decision to add a second fulfillment center along the Interstate 94 North-South corridor will not impact operations at the company’s Kenosha facilities, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The Oak Creek Common Council approved a tenant agreement with Amazon on Tuesday, clearing the way for a $200 million, 2.6 million-square-foot distribution center near Ryan Road and South 13th Street. Site preparation is already underway on the land, which is located in the Ryan Business Park.
The Oak Creek Amazon facility is expected to have 1,500 employees by the end of 2021.
The site is just 18 miles from Amazon’s Kenosha facilities, which include a 1.1 million-square-foot fulfillment center and a 500,000-square-foot distribution center. The Kenosha project included $175 million in capital investment by Amazon.
Ashley Robinson, an Amazon spokeswoman, said the Oak Creek facility would not impact operations in Kenosha.
“There are a lot of contributing factors that go into our thought process on where to place a new fulfillment center,” she said in an email. “We look at the workforce and found talent in abundance in the greater Milwaukee region. We’re also responding to customer demand and want to make sure our fulfillment centers are close to customers so we can offer great Prime service and fast shipping speeds.”
The Oak Creek facility will have a 600,000-square-foot footprint and will be four stories tall. In a statement, the company said employees “will work alongside innovative technology such as Amazon Robotics to pick, pack and ship small items to customers such as household items, electronics and toys.”
Positions in Oak Creek will include operations management, human resources, IT, facilities management and finance. The company says it will pay a minimum wage of $15 per hour and full-time employees will be eligible for a variety of benefits, including health care, 401(k) match, up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave and tuition support for courses in high-demand fields.
Including its Kenosha facilities, Amazon already has two fulfilment centers in Wisconsin, a Prime Now hub, an Amazon Fresh site and a delivery station. The company says it employs more than 4,000 people across the state and invested more than $1 billion in infrastructure and compensation from 2011 to 2017.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has credited the company with the creation of 4,018 jobs as part of its $10.3 million enterprise zone tax credit. The zone was created in 2013 to help support the Kenosha project and required the company to create at least 1,250 jobs. Roughly $5.2 million in tax credits have been verified for the project through the end of June.
