E-commerce giant Amazon said it will create more than 1,000 jobs at a robotics fulfillment center under construction in Pender County near Wilmington. The project was announced last year, though the number of jobs wasn’t disclosed until a groundbreaking event Wednesday.
Construction started on the 650,000-square-foot project in October after Amazon bought the site last summer. It will be Amazon’s largest such center in North Carolina, spanning more than 11 football fields across four and a half floors, officials said in a release.
It is expected to open in mid-2026 at the county-owned Pender Commerce Park. It is on U.S. 421 less than 10 minutes from Interstate 40. The center follows Amazon’s plan for a “last-mile” delivery station it is planning to build at the same business park.
Fulfillment centers are considered Amazon’s “first-mile” network with workers picking, packing and shipping orders newly received from customers.
Amazon’s hourly workers in its fulfillment and transportation network receive at least $22 per hour in average base wages, the company said. The compensation tops $29 per hour when including elected benefits.
Amazon officials said it employs 27,000 full- and part-time workers in North Carolina, with 13 fulfillment and sortation centers in the state.
Unlike many expanding companies, Amazon rarely seeks state or local incentives, which typically are tied to the company hitting specific targets for jobs and investment. No incentives were mentioned in the Pender County expansion.
The Seattle-based company had revenue of $638 billion last year and ranks among the world’s most valuable businesses with a market value of $2.1 trillion. Globally, it employs about 1.5 million people.
