Inside Amazon’s new $325 million fulfillment center is 22 miles of conveyor belts – enough to reach from Bessemer to Birmingham.
Amazon’s $325 million Bessemer fulfillment center is slated for a late March opening, according to Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley.
Gulley, speaking at Tuesday’s Bessemer City Council meeting, told CBS 42 that Amazon representatives were looking at an end-of-March opening for the fulfillment center, and that within the next eight weeks the online retail giant would begin hiring for many of the 1,500 jobs anticipated to come from the project.
In the next two weeks, Amazon, in partnership with Lawson State Community College, will offer four free employment information sessions about jobs at the fulfillment center. Salaries for these positions are expected to start at $15 an hour.
After Amazon announced its plans for the fulfillment center in June 2018, ground was broken that October. Located on a more than 100-acre site, the fulfillment center is a 2 million-square-foot, multi-floor, state-of-the-art facility where Amazon employees will work alongside innovative technology created by Amazon Robotics, which help employees complete jobs in a more efficient manner.
The fulfillment center will have an annual economic impact of $202.7 million on Jefferson County and a $232.1 million impact on Alabama, according to an analysis prepared by the Center for Business and Economic Research at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Business and commissioned by the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA). The BBA was a partner in bringing Amazon to Bessemer.
“We are looking forward to Amazon’s job ramp-up and facility opening,” said Jeff Traywick, vice president of economic development at the BBA. “The company is currently seeking applicants for management-level staff and will be working to ramp up its workforce in anticipation of its opening in the first quarter. This is the culmination of a wonderful team effort by city, county, state and company partners that stretches back more than a year and a half.”
Click here to take a look inside Amazon’s forthcoming facility and click here to register for Amazon employment information sessions.