The Midwest missed out on Amazon’s second headquarters sweepstakes, with the online giant choosing New York City and the suburbs of Washington, D.C., to split its much-desired HQ2.
But that doesn’t mean that Amazon has turned a completely cold shoulder to the Midwest. The retailer choose Nashville as the home for an operations center – dubbed the Operations Center of Excellence – that will employ 5,000 full-time workers.
The facility will locate in the 1.5-million-square-foot Nashville Yards development in the city’s downtown, just north of The Gulch neighborhood.
Bill Haslam, governor of Tennesse, said that the state made an attractive officer to land the online giant.
“Amazon has spent the past year searching the nation for the best possible locations to expand and it chose Tennessee because of our business-friendly policies, low taxes and skilled workforce,” Haslam said in a statement.
Amazon is expected to make an estimated capital investment of more than $623 million during the next seven years to build the facility. The average pay at the operations center is expected to be $76.32 an hour.
The employees holding these white-collar jobs will work on fine-tuning Amazon’s supply chain.
U.S. Senator Bob Corker, who represents Tennessee, praised his state’s skilled workforce and business-friendly policies, which he said were keys to landing the operations center deal.
“With this being the single largest jobs announcement in state history, it is clear that Tennessee is firing on all cylinders,” Corker said in a statement.
Others were equally excited.
“This is exciting news for Nashville, which has seen steady and significant growth and revitalization in recent years and has attracted national and regional corporate tenants to the market,” said Sue Earnest, a principal in Avison Young’s Nashville office. “This announcement by Amazon validates the pro-business initiatives that are creating a rich business, educational and cultural environment that has plenty to offer businesses and residents alike.”
Amazon already operates four distribution centers totaling 2.5 million square feet in Nashville, nasvtwo that are more than 1 million square feet each and two smaller last-mile facilities located closer to the downtown.
