‘A great Christmas gift’
Amazon is coming to Marshall County.
Gov. Phil Bryant made the announcement Friday. The company is locating in a spec building at the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park, next door to Cooper Tire.
“It is a great Christmas gift,” said Charles Terry, county supervisor for District 1 and president of the board. “We are excited to have a company like Amazon in our county.”
The project will create 850 full-time jobs which will pay a $15 minimum hourly wage.
The unique warehousing facility will handle the distribution of all consumer products, according to Justin Hall, executive director of the Marshall County Industrial Development Authority.
“Depending on what you order, Amazon will package it there,” Hall said.
The Mississippi Development Authority, Marshall County and the Tennessee Valley Authority have been working closely to land the project, dubbed Project Zeus, he said.
“The State of Mississippi worked really hard to get the announcement out before the Christmas holidays, and the timing was perfect,” Hall said.
Amazon will make improvements on the existing 554,000-square-foot building and could be open by midsummer, according to Hall.
He thanked the Marshall County Board of Supervisors for helping land Amazon with a 10-year ad valorem tax exemption. Hall also thanked the board of directors of Marshall County IDA for their support, as well as MDA for its assistance in getting Amazon here.
Terry also thanked all those who assisted in bringing on Marshall County’s latest economic development partner.
“Amazon will be a good partner for our county and our individual communities,” he said.
Amazon is the 10th major company to come to the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park. Prior projects include Carrier, ASICS, Volvo, Post, Niagara Bottling, McCormick, and Rockfon and Roxul (now under one name, Rockwool).
“It’s a great way for us to end this year and we are looking forward to the added job growth Amazon brings,” Terry said. “We hope to continue to prosper in 2019.
“We thank the citizens of Marshall County for putting this board of supervisors in place, which has enabled us to achieve these great things in the last eight-plus years of a great growth period. We thank the municipal governments for their support and encouragement for this new economic prosperity. And we look forward to the coming year as we provide a trained workforce at our new Workforce Training Center for our new and existing industries.”
John Felton, Amazon’s vice president of Global Customer Fulfillment, said his company “appreciates the state and local elected leaders who have supported Amazon’s entrance into Mississippi. We look forward to providing great job opportunities and an exceptional customer experience.”
MDA is providing funds for building construction and road improvements. Marshall County is assisting with road improvements as well as ad valorem tax exemptions. TVA is also helping with this project.
MDA’s executive director Glenn McCullough Jr. said teamwork at the federal, state and local levels, Marshall County’s proximity to a distribution hub, and the region’s skilled workforce, were instrumental in Amazon’s decision to locate its new fulfillment center in Mississippi.
Governor Bryant said, “I am proud to welcome Amazon as the newest member of the Mississippi business community. Amazon’s presence demonstrates to industry leaders around the globe that Mississippi has what it takes for companies like Amazon to remain competitive and efficiently reach their consumers from our attractive location in the Southeast U.S.”