E-commerce giant Amazon is laying the groundwork to open a massive fulfillment center in Woodburn in 2023.
The industrial building is expected to be approximately 3.8 million square feet in size and rise five stories, records show. It would sit on about 82 acres of land near Interstate 5.
With the new distribution outpost, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) would grow its presence as a major employer in Oregon, where it says it employs more than 13,000 people already. In May, the company announced a hiring push for more than 1,500 workers in the Portland area. A spokeswoman at the time said the jobs were for “current fulfillment center, sort and delivery stations.”
This new fulfillment center alone is expected to employ more than 1,500, according to Amazon's announcement on Wednesday. The average beginning wage will stand at $17 an hour.
“Early 2023, we will begin hiring for a wide range of roles, everything from receiving and stowing inventory to shipping customer orders and supporting network logistics,” Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon's vice president of global customer fulfillment, said in a statement.
The Woodburn proposal was first reported by the Oregonian/OregonLive on June 24. The Business Journal the next day submitted a public records request with the city of Woodburn, which released a trove of documents that go into the minutiae of the concept. The company did not initially respond to a request for comment. Then, on June 30, Amazon formally announced the plans for the fulfillment center.
Records indicate there would be two daily shifts at the fulfillment center, which was codenamed Project Basie, with 937 workers on each shift. “The Project Basie tenant is anticipated to run a multiple day shift/night shift employment pattern,” project documents state.
This, in turn, would create significant amounts of motor traffic. The development is expected "to generate approximately 1,176 trips during the weekday PM peak hour,” though that still falls below a local allowance of 2,500 trips, records show. The plan calls for more than 1,800 parking spots.
With five floors, the building will stand at about 105 feet tall, which exceeds a 45-foot building height requirement in the area. Project officials are seeking a variance to allow for the additional height, records show.
Why wouldn’t a 45-foot-tall building cut it? “The proposed facility requires a five-floor, multi-story structure in which to contain inventory management technology supporting a large number and wide variety of items for fulfillment of customer orders,” the project documents state.
The city of Woodburn also addressed concerns around Enterprise Zone tax breaks in a weekly digital newsletter. Enterprise zones typically afford companies property tax breaks that last three to five years.
“Some people have expressed concerns that Amazon is participating in the Woodburn Enterprise Zone Tax abatement program, however Amazon has indicated that they will not be seeking enterprise zone property tax breaks,” the city said in the newsletter.