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Amazon Fulfillment Center Will Bring 1,500 Full-Time Jobs To Salt Lake City

Julia Ritchey

Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski announced Wednesday that the 850,000 square-foot fulfillment center will be built in the northwest quadrant of the city.

Amazon will spend about $250,000 million to build the facility. It will also hire at least 1,500 full-time employees and up to 2,500 additional part-time workers during the holiday shopping season.

"We’re looking at a real window of opportunity to boost this local economy in a way that it hasn’t been," Biskupski said Wednesday. "Tax revenue dollars could be enormous."

Executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development Val Hale agrees.

"(Amazon is) going to help grow Utah’s economy probably by about $28 million over the next eight years," Hale said in June, when the deal was first announced.

Hale says the state has offered Amazon $5.6 million in tax-credit rebates if the company meets that investment and other job creation requirements.

A representative for Amazon, Carey Nickels, could not confirm whether the same-day delivery service "Prime Now" would be available to Salt Lake area residents but said "customers should certainly expect faster delivery times once the new fulfillment center opens."

Mayor Biskupski says several other states were competing for the facility. Her staff has been in discussions with Amazon since December.

"They want to make sure they have a livable city that their employees will like, they wanted to make sure the city would be a good business partner," Biskupski said Wednesday. "All of those things rose to the top for them, and we’re on our way.”

Salt Lake City’s director of Economic Development, Lara Fritts, praised Amazon’s education and career advancement opportunities.   

“They want to raise the level of education within our community, and skill and talent. I think this has an enormous impact not only today, but also in the future,” Fritts said.

Fritts says groundbreaking on the facility is “imminent,” and Amazon hopes to have construction completed within a year.

Nicole Nixon holds a Communication degree from the University of Utah. She has worked on and off in the KUER Newsroom since 2013, when she first joined KUER as an intern. Nicole is a Utah native. Besides public radio, she is also passionate about beautiful landscapes and breakfast burritos.
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