Amazon's current delivery center right here in Colorado Springs is about to get a whole lot bigger. The new building to be constructed will have an and estimated 850,000 sq ft foundation. Add in 4 stories of space and there's roughly 4 million square feet of room in the huge center planned.
It will transform into a new-and-improved fulfillment center that will add more than 1,000 full-time jobs on top of the already 4,000 full-time employees in the state, according to the company. The center is near the Colorado Springs Airport.
A deal was finalized last week on the site. The company is betting on Colorado Springs' continued growth with an estimated 1 million more people expected to move here with the coming decades.
No incentives were given to Amazon from the city, county, or state.
Amazon hopes to have this facility up and running by next year. Crews are already laying the groundwork for the building.
“The City of Colorado Springs is thrilled to welcome this new Amazon facility to our community,” Mayor John Suthers said in a release. “The arrival of this incredibly successful and innovative company brings with it a wealth of good-paying jobs in our Southeast quadrant and continued positive growth at the Colorado Springs Airport."
At the center, Amazon employees will carry out orders for customers. Amazon says customer orders can include "books, electronics, and toys." Employees will start at $15 an hour with benefits and have the opportunity to continue their education.
One of Amazon's fulfillment centers is located in Thornton with a whole host of robots operating in the facility.
The Thornton Fulfillment Center opened in June 2018. About 1,500 full-time associates work alongside a system of hundreds of Amazon robotics. The robots, which look sort of like red Roomba vacuum cleaners with tall yellow shelves on top, move items around the 855,000-square-foot facility.
The orders are then packed into boxes and prepared for shipment.
The Thornton fulfillment center focuses on smaller items like books, small electronics and household items. Another fulfillment center in Aurora focuses on large items like bicycles and TVs. The facility offers tours to anybody interested. While tours are full for December, January dates will be announced soon on Amazon's website here .