Amazon plans Spring facility

Northwest Houston residents will receive their orders from Amazon a little faster next year.

The company has announced it will build a new fulfillment center in Spring.

The 855,000-squarefoot facility will be located at the Pinto Business Park, off Interstate 45 and Beltway 8.

The warehouse will bring 1,000 full-time jobs to the region, according to a report provided to the Harris County Commissioners Court.

The new facility is “a tremendous boost to our local economy as 1,000 people will be employed, will need housing, recreation and other resources that north Houston is all too happy to provide,” said Barbara Thomason, president of the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce.

Construction of the new warehouse is expected to begin in the fall.

Construction costs for the warehouse and distribution center are estimated to be $136 million, according to the report, and will create approximately 582 jobs in the region.

To help secure the project, Amazon received a tax break from the county, approved unanimously by commissioners, that will save the company $179,073 annually for 10 years.

“The overall increase in the tax base coupled with 1,000 or even more full time jobs makes the match of a tax abatement a good one for Harris County,” said Precinct 4 Communications Director Mark Seegers.

Amazon builds distribution centers throughout the world to ship its products to customers in a timely manner. The new center would not ship Amazon Prime deliveries, which are shipped from a different Houston location. “With Houston’s legacy as a pioneer in innovation and exploration, we are proud to become a member of the community with the announcement of a new fulfillment center in the region,” Akash Chauhan, Amazon’s vice president of North American operations said in a statement. “We are excited to create more than 1,000 full-time jobs and to become a member of the business community.”

Many of the jobs will be associates, who make between $23,000 to $33,000 a year.