Fayetteville Cumberland Economic Development Corporation officially announced the incoming arrival of a 1.3 million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment facility in Fayetteville’s Military Business Park. 

The warehousing facility, which has been rumored for several months, was confirmed by officials for the first time today. It will be located on 94 acres, and is projected to launch its operations in 2023. 

“Amazon is excited to expand operations in Cumberland County, North Carolina, investing in

a new fulfillment center in Fayetteville,” said Nikki Forman, an Amazon spokesperson, in the press release. “We are committed to providing efficient delivery for customers and creating hundreds of jobs

for the talented workforce in the area.”

The announcement of the new facility in Cumberland County follows a May 2021 announcement of a last-mile facility at 1005  Dunn Road, which is currently under construction.

“This Amazon facility in the Military Business Park means hundreds of new jobs for our County, as well as economic growth and advancement. This transformative investment is a major win for our community,” said County Commission Chairman Glenn Adams. “A sincere thanks goes out to Amazon’s representatives as well as Cloteen Jasmin, Senior Vice President of Development at Ryan Companies, who have been collaborating with FCEDC on the project since April. This project has an incredibly aggressive timeline, and we cannot wait to celebrate its opening in 2023. Thanks to all those who collaborated to make this a success.”

The City of Fayetteville and Cumberland County each approved up to $1.25 million to assist with certain infrastructure improvements. 

Amazon’s real estate team evaluated a number of sites, although Robert Van Geons, president and CEO of FCEDC, does not know the scope of the search. “For us it was a matter of could we find the right site. Did we have the right site in our community  that worked with their logistics model?,” Van Geons explained. In addition, FCEDC said some other factors for the selection of the new site included the skilled workforce and solid labor market and how it is transitioned by transitioning military service members. Each year, the release said, 7,000 service members transition from Fort Bragg. 

Cumberland County’s access to major interstates and geographic points also made both sites good options for Amazon to put down roots.  

Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin welcomes Amazon’s arrival. “I welcome the significant positive impact that Amazon will make here. The fact that Amazon has twice selected to invest in our area sends a strong signal to other potential employers about the many wonderful benefits this region has to offer, from our central location to the thriving workforce, and excellent business climate,” he said. 

“Bringing technology-focused, innovative companies like Amazon to the area is a major focus for FCEDC,” said FCEDC Chairman Kelvin Farmer. “We are thankful for the hard work of the talented FCEDC team. We are excited to see what the future holds in terms of economic growth for the community and proud to have Amazon at the top of our list of growing local employers.”



“Projects like this take partnership,” Van Geons said. And this project was no different. The collaborative efforts from multiple public and private organizations including the City of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, Amazon, Fayetteville Public Works Commission, Piedmont Natural Gas, North Carolina Department of Transportation, Broadwell Construction Company, Cape Fear Commercial Real Estate and FCEDC made the project a successful one. 
 

Van Geons explained the multi-faceted impact of the Amazon site. “It will be substantial in the sense of, for each of these jobs, the new wages will be spent on goods and services and products here in our community; when you look at the third party contractors that will be involved with maintenance and repair and maintaining the fleet; the truck driving jobs that will be associated with the distribution components of this. It’ll be an exponential benefit to our community. The other side of it too is they are starting wages at a very competitive number … which I think is a very good sign for wage improvement across our community.”
 

Van Geons says that there are no other Amazon projects in the pipeline at this time, but foresees a future of more big projects in the area. “I think we’ll see a number of other distribution projects coming,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of interest in both the surrounding area and along the 95 corridor in Cumberland County, we’re seeing a number of projects, from advanced manufacturing to distribution, taking a good hard look at our available sites. And, all of our large available buildings are currently full.”