(This story is written by Missourinet St. Louis contributor Jill Enders)
ST. PETERS, Mo.- The nation’s largest online retailer will open its first Missouri fulfillment center in fast-growing St. Peters.
Executives with Seattle-based Amazon made that announcement on Wednesday morning, saying it will create more than 1,500 new jobs with benefits and opportunities to engage with Amazon Robotics in a highly technological workplace. The new facility will be built in Duke Realty’s Premier 370 business park.
Amazon currently operates a sortation center in the north St. Louis County suburb of Hazelwood, where it employs hundreds of associates.
“All of us in St. Peters are excited to welcome Amazon to ‘My Hometown’ and we’re looking forward to them joining the St. Peters family with 1,500 jobs for our region’s well-trained workforce,” says St. Peters Mayor Len Pagano. “With Amazon’s tremendous investment in our region and our commitment to facilitating quality economic development projects with our ‘FasTrac’ process we believe this will be one of their most successful projects – ever.”
Amazon will pack products and ship from the St. Peters facility.
“We are pleased that Amazon has chosen the City of St. Peters as the site for its new fulfillment center,” says County Executive Steve Ehlmann. “This is a major investment that reflects the growing shift to e-commerce and will add more than 1,500 new, full-time jobs in St. Charles County. Amazon’s decision is just one more indication that St. Charles County is being recognized as an exceptional place to live, work and do business.”
Construction is scheduled to begin on March 19, with an anticipated opening of May 1, 2019.
Ehlmann notes the massive 800,000 square-foot facility will be a two-minute drive from the Missouri River bridge, and just 15 miles from St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
More than 50,000 residents live in St. Peters, which is ranked by “Money Magazine” as number 15 in the top 100 best places to live in the United States.