STARKVILLE — Amazon confirmed Tuesday it will build a “last mile” facility at the NorthStar Industrial Park, according to a Golden Triangle Development LINK press release.
The facility will serve as the last stopping point for packages before drivers deliver them to customers’ doorsteps. LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins told The Dispatch the facility’s service area “will be the Golden Triangle and not much bigger.”
When finished, it will be the third last mile Amazon facility in the state, joining others in Hattiesburg and the Jackson metro.
A 50,000 square-foot speculative building will house the facility, which Higgins said should be operational at some point next year. Construction work to finish the facility should begin in the coming weeks.
The project will create 90 to 120 jobs, Higgins said, including a handful of full-time supervisory positions but mostly part-time drivers.
Amazon pays any employee at least $15 per hour, and Higgins said gig work at the last mile facility could be a great fit for college students or anyone trying to make extra money on the side.
“You’ve got some freedom,” he said. “You can put in your ear pods, turn on your Nine Inch Nails and go deliver packages. … I think a lot of those part time guys are going to work quite a few hours.”
The LINK worked with the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority and Agracel, which owns the spec building, to land the facility, even after it looked like the deal was dead in the water.
Higgins told the Starkville Board of Aldermen in February “a company that delivers products to your home,” backed out of coming to the spec building, citing a lack of parking space for trucks.
He confirmed to The Dispatch on Tuesday he was referring to the Amazon facility, but the company had since negotiated lease terms with Agracel and developed a workable parking scheme.
“I couldn’t be more excited to have the partnership with the LINK result in a project that brings jobs and activity to NorthStar Park,” Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill, who also serves as president for OCEDA, said in the press release. “It is especially exciting to have an international, high profile company like Amazon show their belief in the benefits of having a new and substantial presence in Starkville. I have always believed that our partnership with Oktibbeha County and OCEDA would yield long term economic development to our community and the region. When we partner we create the best chances for our mutual success.”
Amazon becomes the second tenant at NorthStar, joining Garan Manufacturing. A 100,000 square foot pad for a second spec building is complete, Higgins said, with clearing and grubbing work at the 384-acre site continuing next spring, which will accommodate future development.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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