Amazon to build second fulfillment center in Lexington, will add up to 500 jobs
A Fayette County planning body gave initial approval Thursday for Amazon to build a second fulfillment center in Fayette County.
The Urban County Planning Commission voted unanimously Thursday to rezone 45 acres from agricultural urban to light industrial at 1180 Newtown Pike near the New Circle Road interchange.
The plans submitted to the planning commission show a 143,000 square feet, one-story building with 323 parking spaces for employees. It also includes more than 700 spaces for trucks and delivery vans.
The global online retail giant expects to hire up to 500 part-time, seasonal and full-time employees. The minimum starting salary will likely be $15. Delivery flex drivers could make as much as $22, wrote Branden Gross, a lawyer for Amazon in a letter to the Urban County Planning Commission.
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said the city has been working with Amazon for several months to expand in Fayette County.
“This is about the expansion of a local business, and hundreds of new jobs on the north side of town. We’ve been working with Amazon for several months through our new One Stop Shop, which links planning and economic development, and it has worked really well,” Gorton said. “In the midst of a global pandemic, this expansion says a lot about the strength of our economy. Lexington works to attract all kinds of jobs to provide new opportunities for all citizens.”
The property is north of Nandino Boulevard. A new street will be constructed by Amazon from Newtown Pike into the property to Silver Springs Drive. A second new entrance into the property to the south will be a right in and right out only entrance for trucks.
As well as easy access to New Circle Road, the property is close to Interstate 75 and Interstate 64.
Amazon officials said truck traffic will be limited to 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Starting at 9:50 a.m. and ending at 10:50 a.m., approximately 345 delivery vans will depart from the site at 20-minute intervals, according to documents submitted to the planning commission. Delivery routes are completed between 7:10 p.m. and 8:50 a.m.
A fence will be built along the Legacy Trail, which borders the proposed building site along Newtown Pike and south of the site. Enhanced pedestrian and bicycle crossings will be built on portions of the new roads that traverse the trail into the property, site plans for the property show.
Kyle DeGiulio, an official with Amazon, told the planning commission during its Thursday meeting that Amazon employees will also get full benefits in addition to a minimum starting salary of $15. DeGiulio said the plan is for the delivery vans to be electric, decreasing the amount of run off from the delivery van parking lot.
Amazon has a fulfillment center on Mercer Road, which opened in late 2000, one of the first Amazon fulfillment centers in Kentucky. The first was built in Campbellsville.
Officials with Amazon did not immediately respond to an email asking whether the Mercer Road location will remain open.
No one spoke against the zone change during Thursday’s meeting.
Kentucky is home to 14 Amazon fulfillment centers and one customer service center. Amazon also owns Whole Foods Market stores. There are two in Kentucky, including one at The Summit at Fritz Farm in Lexington.
Amazon will open an air hub in Hebron in 2021, Amazon officials have previously said.
The zone change and development plan must be approved by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council. A date for the zone change to be heard has not been set yet. It’s likely a final vote won’t come until sometime in January.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 8:41 AM.
