Amazon to open packaging center in Greenwood

<div dir="auto" style="text-align: left">It’s official. Amazon will open a rare packaging center in Greenwood, which will bring 1,250 jobs to the area by 2020.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: left">The 615,000-square-foot “receive center” on Allen Road, where a proposed FedEx distribution center was planned before the company backed out in March, is expected to open by the end of next year. The major online retailer will start hiring next winter.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: left">Greenwood was competiting with one other community for the facility.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: left">This distribution center would be one of only a handful in the country, Amazon’s Economic Development Manager Ryan Wilson told city council members last month.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: left">The jobs will pay at least $15 an hour after Amazon raised its minimum wage last week. With benefits, the hourly wage would be closer to $18 an hour. Benefits would start on day one of employment, Amazon officials said.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: left">Council members approved two 10-year tax breaks on property taxes for the building and equipment. The company plans to invest $45 million in real property improvements, as well as $35 million in equipment.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: left">The lease, which an Amazon official said was signed <span class="aBn"><span class="aQJ">Tuesday</span></span>, is longer than the abatements, so the company will have a presence in Greenwood for a long time.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: left">More to come on this story.</div>