Invest Windsor Essex has been working with Amazon for the past six months, and the benefit of the collaboration will create about 225 full-time jobs with benefits.
The number could climb as high as 300 when factoring Christmas and holidays into the equation.
“The entire region benefits from jobs right?” said Joe Goncalves, director of investment with Workforce Windsor Essex.
The corporate giant is set to build a last mile delivery station in the city on Dodge Drive near Central Avenue Windsor. Amazon officials confirmed a 27-acre parcel of land was purchased earlier this month.
“Obviously they see Windsor-Essex as an area where they’re going to open up a facility that’s not going to last for a couple of years but for a long time or else they wouldn’t be making this sort of investment in purchasing property . They would have leased it,” said Justin Falconer, CEO of Workforce Windsor Essex.
The facility is expected to begin operating in 2024. The news comes on the heels of the recent announcement of a battery plant coming to town.
Both projects were facilitated with the help of Invest Windsor-Essex.
“These are jobs that locate here and you can’t just pick up and move them and those are the type of jobs that you want to have in your city and your region from a diversification point of view,” said Goncalves.
Delivery jobs will also accompany the project.
“All the vans that they’re going to have delivering these products. There’s going to be about 200 of them and they actually partner with local companies to run that part of the business,” Goncalves said.
Bill MacMillan, manager of The Delivery Guys, has seen a fleet of Amazon trucks parked in the area. He would like to learn more about the opportunities that could be available to his company and says he’d be open to looking at a tender with Amazon.
“It almost sounds like a small franchise set up type thing that they’re trying to do. It could work. We could run a fleet out of here, 20-40,” he said.
Falconer says recent announcements validate the momentum taking place in our region.
He feels more companies are open to having conversations about relocating thanks to the work of the city, Invest Windsor-Essex and other partners.
“This is the future of work and really pleased to see Windsor-Essex is going to be there and helping to deliver the narrative for this story,” Falconer said.