https://www.tcpalm.com/story/n…
Published 11:32 a.m. ET Jan. 25, 2022
PORT ST. LUCIE — Amazon will open its third facility in St. Lucie County, a 220,000-square-foot delivery station in Legacy Park in Tradition, the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County announced Tuesday.
The Fortune 500 company is expected to hire 200 full-time workers, with wages starting at $15 per hour, for the facility. Construction could be completed by September, according to a news release.
The delivery station will be the 35th of its kind in Florida. Employees will prepare orders to be delivered within 45 miles of the facility. There also are 13 fulfillment and sorting centers across the state, according to Amazon’s website.
Amazon already has a 1.1-million-square-foot fulfillment center under construction in Midway Business Park in northern Port St. Lucie, which is expected to be completed by early fall. The company opened its first local delivery station, in Kings Highway Industrial Park, in 2019.
The City Council approved plans for the second delivery station in May under the code name “Project Senior.”
“Commerce parks coming online in Port St. Lucie and St. Lucie County are ideally located for logistics and distribution needs,” said Pete Tesch, president of the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County, in the news release. “The EDC, our county and our cities are committed to bringing new jobs here so the 60% of the county’s workers who out-commute each day can find work here at home.”
Amazon’s newest facility joins FedEx Ground and Cheney Brothers at Sansone Group’s manufacturing-and-distribution complex at Becker Road and Village Parkway, along Interstate 95.
Once completed, Legacy Park will include a total of approximately 5.4 million square feet of light-industrial and distribution facilities.
Sansone plans to secure tenants for all of Legacy Park within the next 24-36 months, Jeffrey Greenwalt, national director of industrial development for Sansone Group, told TCPalm.
Commercial real estate broker Robert Smith of CBRE worked with the Sansone Group to bring Amazon to Legacy Park, according to the news release.
The EDC also had been working with Amazon’s development team for several years, Maureen Saltzer, spokesperson for the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County said in an email.
Rapid population growth with a strong labor force and easy access to Interstate 95 makes Legacy Park a desirable location for logistics and distribution companies like Amazon and FedEx, according to Greenwalt.
Involvement from the county and cities for projects like this are crucial to expedite permitting and construction approvals, according to Saltzer. The EDC assisted with expedited site-plan review and master site-plan approval in 57 days for the new Amazon facility, the news release states.
Amazon is receiving no temporary tax breaks or performance incentives for this project, according to the news release.
The value of the property and equipment invested will generate tax revenue for the city, county, schools, Fire District, South Florida Water Management District, Children’s Services Council, Florida Inland Navigation District and also help pay the debt for Crosstown Parkway.
