Amazon will anchor the Whiteland Exchange Business Park, town officials announced Monday.
The internet commerce giant will open a fulfillment center in a 530,000-square-foot building located at 19 Bob Glidden Boulevard. A fulfillment center is a third-party logistics warehouse where incoming orders are received, processed and filled.
The signage is up, and Amazon expects to move into the building in the coming weeks as construction is nearing completion. It is on track to be ready for occupancy in early July, said Norm Gabehart, town manager.
The facility will be the second Amazon facility in Johnson County and the company’s third fulfillment center in the Indianapolis area. Last year, Amazon opened a 615,000-square-foot receive center in Greenwood and announced it would hire more than 1,250 employees at a wage of $15 to $18 per hour by the end of 2020, which would make it the largest employer in the county.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe Whiteland fulfillment center is in a smaller building and will operate differently than the Greenwood facility, so job numbers and pay will likely not be the same.
Gabehart said Monday he had not heard any official job numbers or pay rates from Amazon. He has asked the company for job numbers, but they were not ready to reveal that, even to him as the town executive, he said.
Amazon spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
Whiteland Exchange, an industrial business park near Interstate 65 and Whiteland Road, is being developed by Jones Development, of Kansas City, Mo. The town offered the developer tax breaks to build the first two buildings in the business park, including Amazon’s.
The abatement was not tied to job numbers, and it is Whiteland’s policy to not make abatements contingent on job numbers, Gabehart said.
The Whiteland Town Council approved the 10-year abatement in May 2019 for the $15 million warehouse, with a little more than half of the property taxes expected to be paid over the 10-year period. The developer also agreed to make $2.5 million in water system improvements as part of the park’s construction to make the buildings more marketable, Gabehart said in 2019.
Construction on the building began last spring as a speculative development, but Jones began talks with Amazon shortly after construction began, Gabehart said. To accommodate Amazon, the developer added 100,000 square feet to the original plan for the building, he said.
“Already having current locations in Johnson County, Amazon was looking to expand their presence based on market needs and found themselves looking toward the larger of the two speculative buildings under construction at the Whiteland Exchange,” a statement from the town said.
Amazon is just the beginning for Whiteland Exchange, Gabehart said. Eventually, the park will be home to five warehouse operations, with more development expected to begin soon, he said.
Permits may be filed for a third building in the park in July, Gabehart said. Tenant selection is also being narrowed down for the second, 130,000-square-foot building which will be ready for occupancy soon, he said.
