Amazon Announces Fulfillment Center in North Pekin


Amazon Announces Fulfillment Center in North Pekin

Amazon purchases 100,000 warehouse in North Pekin with plans to open distribution center in 2022.



Pekin, IL- Amazon Prime deliveries will be arriving a little bit faster for Pekin area residents. 

Web-based retail and delivery giant Amazon plans to take over a 100,000-square-foot warehouse at 1961 Edgewater Drive in North Pekin. The business will be a "fulfillment center," and Amazon plans to open next year, according to a press release from the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council.

GPEDC CEO Chris Setti said the plans have been in the works for a couple years, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused some delays.

"As they continue to build their network of delivery and fulfillment center, they had identified the Greater Peoria area as a place where they needed a center," Setti said. "(It's) kind of their last-mile delivery program."

Final jobs numbers have yet to be finalized, but similar fulfillment centers across the country typically employ between 250 and 500 people, according to the release. Hourly wages at Amazon start at $15 a minimum. Benefits include health care coverage and parental leave. Job postings are currently available on popular job sites.

The North Pekin Fulfillment Center will be Amazon's largest Illinois investment, according to the release.

"The way I understand, the Amazon model at these large distribution centers in the Chicago area and St. Louis, their goal is that they want to be able to get you everything that you might order within a day if you're an Amazon Prime member," Setti said. "And so big trucks deliver from, let's say, a distribution center in Chicago, will deliver goods to this (facility in North Pekin.) They will be unpacked, re-sorted, and then a van will take it."

Setti said Amazon will also operate a "Flex" program, which uses independent contractors to take packages the last mile or so.

From 2010 to 2019 Amazon has invested over $8 billion in capital infrastructure and wages in Illinois. Amazon's footprint includes nine fulfillment and sortation centers, eight delivery stations, a technology hub, an air gateway and a regional air hub, according to the release.

At the end of last year Amazon employed more than 36,000 people in Illinois.

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Contact: Brittney Hogue
Communications Coordinator
Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce
brittney@pekinchamber.com

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