Amazon announced Monday it's building a nearly 20-acre fulfillment center in Thornton, about 20 miles away from its center in Aurora.
The new fulfillment center near the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and 144th Avenue is expected to feature Amazon robots that will help the site's more than 1,500 full-time associates pick, pack and ship smaller items like books, electronics and toys, according to the Seattle-based e-commerce giant.
Amazon will be the largest employer in Thornton when it opens fall 2018. The city would have the second largest payroll with about 1,100 jobs, North Suburban Medical Center would be on the list shortly after with just under 1,000 workers, said Adam Krueger, assistant director of economic development for the city.
Krueger said the city has been working on bringing Amazon for about two years and that it has not offered the company any direct incentives. The city hopes the company's arrival will lead to more job creation and development in the area.
Amazon announced in January that it would build a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center at Smith Way and 19th Avenue in Aurora, about three miles southeast of its sortation facility that opened in 2016. Between the two sites in Aurora and facility in Thornton, Amazon is on pace to employ about 3,000 workers in Colorado.
The 855,000-plus square-foot fulfillment center in Thornton is expected to contain about 60,000 square feet of office space, Krueger said.
Business & data reporter Adrian D. Garcia can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/adriandgarcia.
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