There’s good news for Fall River. Mega-online retailer Amazon.com has its eyes on the economically-struggling city as the site of a new fulfillment center – a place to stock and ship the thousands of items it sells each day. Fall River has everything Amazon could want, including convenient highway access, appealing tax incentives, and a large available work force.
People knew something was happening – some big company was expressing an interest in coming to Fall River. But everything was shrouded in secrecy. Even insiders like Ken Fiola of the Fall River Office of Economic Development only knew code names.
“We didn’t actually know it was Amazon for sure until at least two years into the process,” Fiola said. “It started off as Project Kayak, and it morphed into Project Nexus, and then it was Project Hourglass, and now we’re finally at the point where we can actually identify the company.”
The deal isn’t finalized yet. But it’s close. And if it is built, a new Amazon facility would be more than a million square feet, occupying 91 of the 300 acres in the new Life Science and Technology Park just outside of town. Part of the mammoth building would actually be in neighboring Freetown, and both Fall River and Freetown are fast-tracking tax-incentive packages, which are expected to win voter approval The location is pre-permitted for the type of use Amazon proposes.
“When Amazon decides to move, they like to move quickly. And they want to make sure they didn’t have to go through a long permitting process. So that was an important criteria,” said Fiola.
Fall River offers two other big plusses: easy highway access, and a large, available work force. The facility is expected to generate 1,000 full-time jobs with an average annual starting salary of $35,000 plus benefits. And in addition to those full-time jobs would be hundreds of part-time and temporary positions.
“The employment opportunities that are being offered through Amazon require a high school degree as opposed to a college degree,” Fiola pointed out. “So many of these hard-working people that never went to college will have opportunities to work in one of the most progressive and fastest-growing companies in the entire world.”
Hundreds of local construction workers also would be hired to build the new facility.
Across town, at the Fall River Career Center, Rita Guidotti is an employer recruiting for a couple of open positions at her company, but she was happy to hear about Amazon.
“It’s wonderful - we desperately need jobs,” Guidotti said enthusiastically. “There are so many people that I know that are out of work. The pay scale sounds like it will be fair. I think it’s a wonderful boost for Fall River.”
Joe Viana is the Career Center’s Director. He said Amazon will coordinate with them and other local agencies to screen applicants for positions at the new fulfillment center, and Fall River and Freetown residents will get first priority for the open jobs. Viana said his office will most likely be inundated with applicants once the first job postings go up.
“I mean, like everyone else, I’m very excited about this. And our staff is very excited. They know what to do – they’re ready to do it. And we have the people that are looking for work. So we wanna support the Office of Economic Development, and certainly the local Mayor’s office, to make that happen, ‘cause we certainly need it,” said Viana.
At this late stage of the game, Ken Fiola doesn’t see anything on the horizon that could derail the project. In fact, the Fall River City Council took less than 3 minutes last Thursday to approve a tax incentive financing package for the project. But Fiola’s keeping his fingers crossed just in case.
“I’d be much happier in January sayin’ ‘the deal is done.’ So I’m always a little cautious, but like I said, right now we’re movin’ in the right direction,” said Fiola.
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