A $259 million FedEx project is no longer coming to Greenwood.
City and company officials announced Saturday evening that plans for FedEx to construct a 608,000-square-foot distribution facility near the Interstate 65 and Worthsville Road interchange have fallen through.
Last fall, FedEx officials told the city that the new facility was necessary to keep up with the increasing shipping demands. But now, they have decided that the Greenwood facility is not needed.
“Automation and technological enhancements we have made to our network over the last decade have enabled us to continue to increase the utilization of our existing capacity while serving the growing needs of our customers,” FedEx said in a statement.
The city said the decision by FedEx was disappointing, but officials appreciated the company’s transparency and collaboration throughout the process.
In October, FedEx announced plans to build a distribution center on a 237-acre property on Worthsville Road, just east of I-65. The company planned to spend $259 million to purchase the land and construct the facility on the site, which could later be doubled in size. The initial facility would have created 455 full- and part-time jobs.
The Greenwood City Council had agreed to give FedEx a 10-year, $17.3 million tax break. Greenwood was also in the process of approving plans to spend $2 million on road improvements in the area near the facility.
“Incentives offered by the City of Greenwood were generous and very much a positive for our initial consideration of that location, and we thank Greenwood for its partnership throughout this process,” FedEx said in the statement. “The Indianapolis area remains an important market for FedEx, both for our current operations and as we consider the future needs of our network.”
The site had been rezoned early in the fall for the creation of a 350-acre business park northeast of the Worthsville Road interchange. Another distribution company has already located on the site and has a 447,000-square-foot distribution facility planned to open in June.
“The silver lining is that the initial decision by FedEx to explore such a large investment in Greenwood has led to interest from a number of other high-profile companies,” the city said in a statement.
