Huge Amazon center bringing 1,500 jobs to SLC

By Brice Wallace

Internet shopping giant Amazon.com Inc. has selected Salt Lake City for its new fulfillment center, a project that the company said will create 1,500 full-time hourly associate jobs.

The company announced in June it would build the center in Utah but did not announce the location. The $250 million, 855-square-foot project will be in the Northwest Quadrant, a site targeted by the city as an employment, light industrial and manufacturing center.

“We are excited to continue growing our team with the first fulfillment center in Utah,” said Akash Chauhan, Amazon’s vice president of North American operations. “In Utah, there are already more than 30,000 authors, sellers and developers growing their businesses and reaching new customers on Amazon products and services. This new facility will enable us to better serve customers and improve Prime membership benefits.”

{mprestriction ids="1,3"}Employees at the facility will pick, pack and ship small customer items, such as books, electronics and toys.

“We applaud Amazon’s decision to invest in Utah,” said Gov. Gary R. Herbert. “The state of Utah’s talented workforce and business-friendly environment allows innovative companies like Amazon to thrive. Their investment in Salt Lake City’s Northwest Quadrant will be a significant economic driver to attract new high-paying jobs and diversify our economy.”

“We extend a warm welcome to Amazon and its new fulfillment center,” said Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski. “We consider this a perfect pairing, as Amazon and Salt Lake City are both known for our customer service and ease of doing business. We are very excited for the 1,500 new full-time jobs Amazon will create in our community, and look forward to a long future of working together.”

City officials said Amazon is the first major business to announce plans to locate in the Northwest Quadrant, which straddles Interstate 80 west of the Salt Lake City International Airport and 4000 West to the western city limits (about 8800 West) and from 2100 South to the northern city limits. The future state prison will be on 300 acres of the site, leaving nearly 4,000 acres to be preserved as open space and 3,670 acres targeted as an employment, light industrial and manufacturing center. In February, UPS broke ground on an 840,000-square-foot regional distribution center adjacent to the Northwest Quadrant boundary.

In June, Amazon Fulfillment Services Inc. was approved for a $5.6 million incentive by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board, with the incentive tied to the creation of 130 high-paying jobs. Amazon indicated at the time that the facility would result in several hundred jobs.

GOED documents indicated that the project would result in $85.5 million in wages over eight years and $28.4 million in new state tax revenues during that period. Herbert said then that Utah had been competing with at least six other states for the project and that having Amazon in Utah will help the state attract more companies.

“This is an incredible ‘get’ for Salt Lake City and the state of Utah, and we couldn’t be more excited to host Amazon in this project,” Biskupski said. “I knew that by making economic development a key piece of my administration, our city would see big dividends. Salt Lake City and Amazon are the perfect match. We are both focused on excellent customer service, resiliency, investment in employment, and on our local community.”

City officials started working with Amazon on the project in December. Biskupski and Lara Fritts, the city’s economic development director, along with officials from GOED and the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, visited the company’s Seattle headquarters in early March.

“I was sure we could sell Salt Lake City with its unique beauty; relatively low cost of living; and our educated, dedicated workforce,” Biskupski said. “But the added value has been our commitment to developing the Northwest Quadrant, and our customer-centered city employees. We are truly stepping up and revolutionizing the way business is done and won in Salt Lake City.”

The project is being developed in a partnership between Seefried Industrial Properties and an affiliate of USAA Real Estate Co.{/mprestriction}