In the next month or two, 1,000 employees will come to work in Greenwood, making Amazon the largest manufacturing employer — and one of the largest employers — in Johnson County.
Amazon officials announced Wednesday hiring has started at its new Greenwood facility, and employees will report to work in the coming months, but the company would not specify an opening date.
The company is already interviewing potential candidates, said Andre Woodson, a company spokesperson.
“Typically, we begin interviewing candidates one to two months prior to launch,” he said Wednesday. “But Day 1 is still TBD.”
The mostly factory jobs will pay at least $15 an hour given that Amazon raised its minimum wage around the same time the company announced it would be building a facility in Greenwood. With the cost of benefits factored in, the hourly wage is expected to be more than $18 an hour.
Employees will package and process incoming products that will then be shipped to other local distribution facilities, known as fulfillment centers. Essentially, the Greenwood location will work as a fulfillment center for the company’s other fulfillment centers.
Amazon announced in October that it was planning to open the massive, 615,000-square-feet receive center in Greenwood, one of only a few around the country. The move was considered a win for the city due to the company’s investment, valued at more than $80 million, the sheer number of jobs it is bringing and the economic development boost it provides, city officials have said.
At the time, Amazon officials said the new facility would bring 1,250 jobs to Greenwood. It still will, Woodson said. Amazon will fill about 250 additional jobs in 2020, he said.
At the time of the announcement, Mayor Mark Myers said he expected the facility would be up and running in September. At that time, the major online retailer wasn’t comfortable pinpointing an exact date for the opening, saying only that it would be up and running by 2020, and that they would begin hiring one to two months prior to it opening.
The city approved two 10-year tax breaks on property taxes for the building and equipment. The location that Amazon chose is where a proposed FedEx distribution center was planned before that company backed out. Amazon swooped in while the property was zoned industrial and secured a deal.
Amazon is investing $45 million in real property improvements and $35 million in equipment. The city will still receive about $5 million in real property taxes over the life of the abatement, and about $1.3 million in personal property taxes.
The company also agreed to pay for several road projects in the area to accommodate increased traffic once it opens this fall. Those improvements include widening Graham and Collins roads, adding turn lanes and passing blisters along Allen Road and building a new road, which will run east and west and connect Graham and Collins roads. They have since also committed to a new traffic signal at Worthsville and Collins roads, which is in development and will also be paid for by Amazon.
The receive center is in the same 350-acre business park as Pitney Bowes. The business park is located on the far southeast side of the city, near the Interstate 65 and Worthsville Road interchange. Pitney Bowes, which is hiring now, brought about 200 more jobs to the area. The average pay for those jobs is $17.35 an hour. The city gave that company tax breaks as well.
