Amazon is expanding in the Charlotte area again with plans to open three new facilities.
The news Monday comes after Amazon last fall announced the opening of new distribution centers in the Charlotte area that would create more than 1,000 jobs.
Amazon will open a new fulfillment center at 12220 Carolina Logistics Drive in Pineville, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant said in a news release Monday. The Amazon facility would be more than 500,000 square feet and will open later this year, a company spokeswoman said.
The starting wage is $15 an hour, plus benefits. The company does not yet have a total number of employees to be hired, the spokeswoman said.
However, two other local fulfillment centers in Charlotte and Kannapolis have each hired more than 1,000 employees.
The Pineville center will be for large items such as mattresses, kayaks, grills and exercise equipment.
Amazon is part of the over 4 million square foot industrial site on 288 acres that is being developed by Beacon Partners.
Amazon said it also expects to hire hundreds of workers for two delivery stations at 4226 Beam Road and 9817 Old Statesville Road in Charlotte.
Delivery stations are part of Amazon’s last-mile delivery chain to speed up deliveries for Charlotte customers, and they allow people to deliver Amazon packages with flexible scheduling, according to the company.
“These two delivery stations and new fulfillment center will help enforce our strengths in logistics and delivery and bring more connectivity to our region, especially for the entrepreneurs and small business leaders in our community,” said Janet LaBar, president and CEO of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance.
Many new delivery stations, including ones in Charlotte, are designed for electric delivery vehicles.
“We also appreciate Amazon’s commitment to designing the delivery stations to best accommodate electric delivery vehicles, as it aligns well with the city’s Strategic Energy Action Plan to prioritize clean energy,” said Tracy Dodson, assistant city manager and economic development director for the city of Charlotte.
There are currently eight Amazon delivery stations in North Carolina, with two in Charlotte, according to Amazon.
Amazon now has 19 sites in North Carolina, including three fulfillment centers in Charlotte, Kannapolis and Raleigh, a processing facility in Charlotte, two delivery stations in Charlotte and a Prime Now site in Charlotte.
Amazon has more than 12,500 full- and part-time workers in North Carolina, the Observer previously reported.
RECENT AMAZON EXPANSION
Amazon in October said it would hire more than 1,000 people at its new sorting center in Charlotte and delivery station in Concord.
Last September, the e-commerce giant opened CLT9, a 600,000-square-foot sort center on Reeves Ridge Drive in west Charlotte, hiring about 1,100 full- and part-time workers.
Amazon also created more than 150 full-time jobs at DLT3, a new 175,000-square-foot Concord delivery station on Goodman Road, to help speed up deliveries for Cabarrus County customers.