Amazon signs lease on Greenwood facility

<p>Amazon is coming to Greenwood.</p><p>The city beat out another community for a unique Amazon packaging facility that is expected to bring 1,250 jobs to the area by 2020. The 615,000-square-foot “receive center” on Allen Road is expected to open next September, Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said.</p><p>But the major online retailer isn’t comfortable pinpointing an exact date for the opening. </p><p>Alyssa Tran, corporate communications specialist for Amazon, said the facility will be up and running by 2020, and the company should start hiring a month or two prior to it opening.</p><p>The company plans to start construction on the new facility immediately, Myers said.</p><p>&quot;It’s a strong sign for our city when the world’s second largest company chooses Greenwood to invest more than $80 million and $2 million in public infrastructure improvements,&quot; Myers said in a statement Tuesday night.</p><p>Greenwood was competing with one other community for the facility, but neither city officials nor Amazon are saying which community it was.</p><p>&quot;Honestly, they thought that our city staff was very easy to work with to get the permitting process and plan reviews done, and also the location was key for them. They really like the location,&quot; Myers said Wednesday morning.</p><p>City council members approved two 10-year tax breaks on property taxes for the building and equipment last month. The location that Amazon chose had been a proposed FedEx distribution center before that company backed out earlier this year.</p><p>Amazon says it plans to invest $45 million in real property improvements, as well as $35 million in equipment over the 10 years of the abatements. 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 over the life of that abatement, city officials said previously.</p><p>The lease, which Myers said was signed Friday, is longer than the abatements, so the company plans to have a presence in Greenwood for a long time.</p><p>“It’s been exciting to know that Amazon is looking at Greenwood, Indiana, and that they found our community to be worthy to work with,” Myers said.</p><p>As city council members weighed the tax breaks over the last couple of months, a few residents questioned and opposed them due to the type of jobs the company will bring and the low wages involved. The jobs are expected to be mostly hourly factory jobs.</p><p>The jobs will pay at least $15 an hour after Amazon raised its minimum wage last week. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the change after he faced criticism about the company’s pay disparities.</p><p>Initially, Amazon officials said the average pay for the jobs in Greenwood would be $14.65 an hour. With benefits, the hourly wage was expected to be around $18 an hour, but that figure may go up now. Benefits will start on day one of employment, Amazon economic development manager Ryan Wilson told council members last month.</p><p>Company officials are in talks to determine what exactly the average pay will be raised to for Greenwood employees, Tran said.</p><p>“What I can say is it will be more than ($15) in this area,” she said. “But the up-to amount, I’m not sure yet.”</p><p>The facility would be one of only a few across the country, Wilson said. At this “receive center,” employees will package and process incoming products that will then be shipped to other local distribution facilities, known as fulfillment centers. So essentially, the Greenwood location would work as a fulfillment center for the company’s other fulfillment centers, Wilson said.</p><p>The company also agreed to pay for several road projects in the area to accommodate increased traffic once it opens next 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.</p><p>The receive center will be built in the same 350-acre business park where Pitney Bowes, a similar facility, opened recently. 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, is bringing 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.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="A timeline" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Amazon will open a “receive center” in a 615,000-square-foot facility on Allen Road, northeast of the Interstate 65 and Worthsville Road interchange on the southeast side of the city, making it the second company to operate inside that new business park. Here is a timeline of plans and proposals for that property:</p><p>Sept. 2017: The site was rezoned for the creation of a 350-acre business park.</p><p>Oct. 2017: FedEx announced plans to build a distribution center on 237 acres of the property. The company planned to spend $259 million to purchase the land and construct the facility on the site. The FedEx facility would have created 455 full- and part-time jobs.</p><p>March 2018: City and company officials announced that plans for FedEx to construct the 608,000-square-foot distribution facility had fallen through because it was no longer needed.</p><p>Summer 2018: Pitney Bowes, a global high-tech shipping company that supports a host of clients such as QVC and Victoria’s Secret, opened a regional hub inside the 350-acre business park, making it the first business to operate on the property.</p><p>Aug. 2018: &quot;Project Brutus&quot; appeared on the Greenwood city council agenda for the first time. KSM Location Advisors, an Indianapolis-based project management firm, announced that a company whose name was not yet being revealed was considering the site for a distribution center and regional office that would bring 1,250 jobs to the area, but was asking for 10-year tax abatement’s on property taxes for the building and equipment.</p><p>Sept. 2018: Amazon announced it is the mystery company behind &quot;Project Brutus,&quot; and Greenwood is in the running for the packaging center. Council members approved the tax breaks.</p><p>Oct. 2018: Amazon confirmed it has signed the lease on the property and will begin construction this year. The company hopes to have the facility up and running by 2020.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]