NORTH PEKIN, Ill. – A major company will open its first Peoria-area location Thursday morning.
Amazon opens its fulfillment center in North Pekin at 9:00 a.m. Thursday. Despite the rainy, windy weather predicted, Pekin Chamber of Commerce officials will cut the ribbon and open the doors.
Chris Setti with the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council tells WMBD’s Greg and Dan, Amazon was interested in building new, until they changed their mind.
“They just wanted to use something that was existing,” said Setti. “And they needed at least 100,000 square feet. At the time (2019), they said they needed six acres of parking — which is a lot of parking — because they had so many potential employees who would work there. Not a lot of 100,000 square foot buildings, which would be kind of a manufacturing building in an industrial building, that’s then next to a parking lot.”
Setti says they settled on the building on Edgewater Drive right next to a big field that could be turned into a parking lot — and it has.
Is the fact that the facility is opening in North Pekin good for the entire area, including Peoria? Setti says, yes, absolutely it is.
“What we want to see is investment in our community,” said Setti. “Whether that’s what OSF is doing with the cancer therapy center, or what Amazon is doing in North Pekin, (or) Precision Planting, all the things that are happening in the Warehouse District, or new businesses opening in the Levee District in East Peoria, it’s all good for the region. What it shows, it helps us tell the story that this is a place that people are investing in.”
The fulfillment center will eventually employ 200 people, but will start with 30 for now, and ramp up.
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