by James A. Bacon
Amazon has announced the launch of two state-of-the-art operations facilities in Hampton Roads that will create 1,500 jobs. One is a multi-story robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk, creating 1,000 jobs, and the other a 650,000-square-foot processing center in Chesapeake, creating 500 jobs. Both operations are scheduled to open in 2021.
Since 2010, Amazon invested more than $34 billion in Virginia through its local fulfillment centers, cloud infrastructure, and research facilities. The company operations network in Virginia encompasses more than 10 fulfillment centers, sortation centers, and delivery stations across the state, plus 13 Whole Foods Markets and three Prime Now Hubs.
“We celebrate the addition of two new, high-tech facilities in Suffolk and Chesapeake that will positively benefit the entire Hampton Roads region,” said Governor Ralph Northam in a prepared statement.
It’s not clear from the press release if the Amazon facilities will be serving the local market, as many other Virginia facilities are doing, or if they will deliver goods to a broader geographic area. The statement also did not say how much Amazon will be investing in the distribution centers. Typically, state-of-the-art facilities require investments in the multiple tens of millions of dollars, sometimes more. Regardless, any time a company announces the creation of 1,500 jobs, that’s good news for Virginia.
Even better, there is no mention in the press release of any company-specific state or local subsidies or tax breaks. The company will be eligible to receive benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone Grant Program as well as employee training through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program. But this is not a re-run of the Amazon HQ2 competition in which the company wrung hundreds of millions of dollars of benefits from the state.
Did Amazon ask for more? The press release yields no clues. Perhaps the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, which led the economic-development effort, played hardball. Perhaps the Northam administration decided that, with all the incentives granted the Amazon HQ2 project, it would be politically imprudent to give away more. Whatever the case, the projects should provide a nice boost to the state and local tax base.
