An Amazon robotics fulfillment center under construction on U.S. 421 is expected to create more than 1,000 full- and part-time jobs in the Wilmington area.

Amazon officials and local leaders announced details of the project Wednesday morning during a ceremonial groundbreaking event. The largest in North Carolina, the facility will span more than 11 football fields with more than 3 million square feet in floor area across four-and-a-half floors, officials said in a news release. The site is in both Pender and New Hanover counties.

Scott Satterfield, president and CEO of Wilmington Business Development, emphasized the project’s significance for the region on Wednesday.

“Today, we celebrate not just the construction of a transformational economic development project,” he said, “but also the creation of a truly unique partnership that has been established between greater Wilmington and one of the world's most prominent companies.”

The path to bringing the fulfillment center to Wilmington hasn’t always been easy, Satterfield said; like any big project, it’s had its ups and downs. In early 2022, Seefried Industrial Properties, a firm representing Amazon, backed out of a purchase contract for the site.

Things picked back up, and last August, Amazon purchased the more than 170-acre site that was once home to the former BASF vitamin plant, which closed in 2009. Crews broke ground on the project in October. 

On Wednesday, the structure’s steel frame towered above local leaders as they gathered for the event. The construction of a fulfillment center typically takes between 18 and 24 months, said Holly Sullivan, Amazon's vice president of worldwide economic development. That means the Wilmington facility could open in late 2026 or early 2027.

“What you see rising behind me will soon become North Carolina's largest and most advanced robotics fulfillment center with the footprint of more than 650,000 square feet,” Sullivan said. “This facility represents not just a building, but a gateway of opportunity.”

The Wilmington fulfillment center is considered a "first-mile" facility where employees pick, pack and ship customer orders alongside robots. It will serve customers in the Southeast and nationwide, Sullivan said.

She said it was the region’s available local workers and a “unicorn” site that helped draw Amazon to the region. Because the land straddles New Hanover and Pender counties, an interlocal agreement has helped streamline the planning and permitting for the facility, Sullivan added.

Because of its location, Amazon will pay taxes to both counties, according to Satterfield. The tax money and the local jobs the facility is set to create will have lasting impacts in Pender County, said Randy Burton, chair of the Pender County Board of Commissioners.

“The impact of the jobs and investment that have come into Pender Commerce Park has been a game changer for our economy,” he said, “bringing good jobs for our residents and creating new revenue channels that fund mission-critical government services like police, first responders, schools and roads.”

Bill Rivenbark, who chairs the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, said the company’s investment will have a “generational impact” and could be “the most important project ever” for the region.

“A lot of communities, towns and counties brag about having a Fortune 500 company in their town,” Rivenbark said, “we’ve got a Fortune Two.”

The 1,000 jobs created by the fulfillment center are expected to indirectly create another 445 jobs in the Wilmington area due to spillover effects, according to an economic analysis from Mouhcine Guettabi, an associate professor of economics at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. That job creation will result in $163 million in recurring economic activity in the area.

The facility’s construction is also expected to create 1,500 temporary jobs with an investment of $350 million, according to Guettabi’s analysis.

Just north of the fulfillment center, plans for a separate Amazon project, a 142,000-square-foot delivery station, is under review inside Pender Commerce Park. Sullivan said there’s no specific timeline for the delivery station, as the company focuses on the fulfillment center’s construction. 

The two Amazon facilities would fill all available space in Pender Commerce Park, Satterfield said. He underscored the industrial park’s role in bringing economic investment to the area. 

Once built out, Satterfield said the park overall will have created about 3,000 jobs, 4.5 million square feet of industrial space and more than one billion dollars in private economic investment.

Satterfield said Amazon’s presence in the Wilmington area will help raise the region’s profile and, potentially, draw additional private investment.

“Amazon is the second largest publicly traded company in the United States of America,” he said, “and to have them setting down roots in this part of the world sends a message to the rest of the world that the greater Wilmington region can compete for serious projects.”

According to Amazon, the company has created 27,000 full- and part-time jobs in North Carolina and currently has 13 fulfillment and sortation centers and 14 delivery stations in communities across the state.

Get additional details on Amazon's potential economic impact in the Business Journal's March 7 issue.