FedEx is once again planning to make a home in Greenwood, nearly three years after the company backed out of an original deal with the city.
The 815,000-square-feet industrial warehouse that is under construction adjacent to the Amazon receive center in Greenwood will be a FedEx Ground distribution center. The global delivery services company announced Tuesday it plans to invest $23.5 million in the massive facility on a property northeast of the Worthsville Road interchange.
FedEx is expected to bring 500 full-time and part-time jobs to the area, making it one of the larger manufacturing employers in the county. The company plans to employ 100 full-time employees with an average salary of $54,000 with benefits, and 400 part-time employees at a much lower average of about $15 an hour.
FedEx did not ask the city for any tax breaks this time around, and plans to invest about $23.5 million in equipment, all of which the company will pay full taxes on immediately, city leaders said.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryInstead, the city will offer more than $560,000 in cash incentives to be paid over the next three years if FedEx fulfills what it has promised in terms of job retention and revenue, according to the project agreement between the city and the company. The Greenwood Redevelopment Commission unanimously approved that agreement Tuesday.
It’s a good investment, not just for the number of jobs it will bring, but also because the money FedEx plans to invest will immediately benefit the city via property taxes, Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said.
“That’s almost $25 million worth of tax base that’s immediately going to be released to the schools, the libraries, the fire department … so it really is a good deal,” Myers said.
This isn’t the first time FedEx Ground planned to come to Greenwood. Nearly three years ago, the company announced it planned to invest $259 million in a new 608,000-square-feet distribution center on the same property, east of Interstate 65.
Greenwood approved a $17.3 million 10-year tax break for the company and invested $2 million in road improvements near the facility. But FedEx backed out a few months later in March 2018, citing company data that showed a distribution center was no longer needed in the area.
Despite FedEx canceling its plans, the developer of the warehouse, Indianapolis-based Scannell Properties, went ahead with the project as a speculative building, ultimately building an 815,000-square-feet shell building. Scannell got a separate $5 million tax break from the city, said Greg Wright, city controller.
Now, as the facility nears completion, the city says it found out about six months ago FedEx wanted to move into the warehouse after all, Myers said.
The company has signed a 10-year lease on the warehouse, so Myers doesn’t expect the company to back out again, he said.
The plan is to have the ground center open before the holiday season starts in December, company representatives said Tuesday during the redevelopment commission meeting. The formal deadline for construction is December 31, according to the project agreement.
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$23.5 million investment by FedEx
$560,000 cash incentive offered to FedEx by Greenwood
$5 million in tax breaks approved for Scannell Properties
815,000-square-feet warehouse
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