Amazon opens
a new warehouse in Orlando.
Amazon opened its new 2.4-million-square-foot warehouse in Orlando on Sunday, the internet retail giant revealed Tuesday morning.
After just over a year of construction on a property south of Orlando International Airport, employees took in their first item to stock — a Bestek 5-port USB charging station — and began filling the warehouse to serve customers in Central Florida and other cities in Florida and the southeastern United States.
Amazon hasn’t said whether it would increase speeds for delivery in Central Florida and the company already offers one and two-hour delivery for its Prime subscription customers in the Orlando metropolitan area.
The new facility at 12340 Boggy Creek Road is one of Amazon’s next-generation fulfillment centers, where 1,500 employees will work, but much of the actual heavy lifting is done by robots and machinery.
The particular facility will ship small items such as books, household goods and toys. It’s a part of Amazon’s growing footprint in Florida that includes warehouses in Lakeland, Ruskin, Jacksonville and Miami.
Amazon didn’t seek any local tax incentives for the project, which covers about 130 acres.
Amazon has been hiring warehouse associates for the new facility for about a month, a number that could increase by 1,000 during the busier holiday months. The company also didn’t say yet how many employees had been hired after a jobs blitz over the last month.
However, Amazon only been hiring for a limited number of positions through its hiring website, mostly for warehouse associates with a pay listed at “$10 an hour and more.” The company is hiring for full-time and parttime warehouse associate employees. The online application process features games such as stacking boxes and pulling barcoded items from a shelf.
Last week the company also started advertising for Amazon Prime Now Shoppers, which is part-time.
If wages are in line with other Amazon facilities, median wages for associates at the new facility would be about $4,500 less than the Orlando area average of $30,520 a year, according to the Florida Policy Institute.
Average wages for associates at other Amazon warehouses in the country are about $12.50 an hour, according to salary data tracker Glassdoor.
The company is still hiring for positions at amazon.com/MCOjobs.