Amazon to add four new sites in Michigan in 2022 and 2023

Amazon.com Inc. is expected to announce Wednesday plans to launch its first mid-Michigan fulfillment center and three more facilities to serve Metro Detroit and the Grand Rapids area.

Set to open in 2022 and 2023, the four new sites are: a more than 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Delta Charter Township just west of Lansing, a sort center and a delivery station in Gaines Township in the Grand Rapids area, and a delivery station in Canton Township.

“We’re excited to expand our investment throughout the state of Michigan with the addition of these new facilities,” Alicia Boler Davis, senior vice president of global customer fulfillment for Amazon, said in a statement. “This expansion not only allows us to better serve our customers across the state, but also enables us to boost the local economy and drive more opportunities for job creation.”

Davis said the company has created more than 21,000 jobs so far in Michigan. The fulfilment center in Delta Charter Township is expected to open in 2022 and create more than 500 full-time jobs. In Gaines Township, a new sort center is expected to open 2022 and a delivery station in 2023, also creating hundreds of jobs, Amazon said. The delivery station in Canton Township is expected to open in 2022 and employ more than 100 employees.

The announcement comes as the online retail giant celebrates the opening of three facilities, including an 823,000-square-foot robotics fulfillment center in Pontiac that opened Wednesday.

“We have the latest and greatest technology in our fulfillment center to make the customer fulfillment process as efficient as possible,” said Fred McPherson, general manager of Amazon’s Pontiac fulfillment center. “We roughly have an 800,000-square-foot footprint that houses millions of products. Everything from laptops to books to beauty products, other electronic products, snacks. It’s a wide variety of products we have at the fulfillment center.”

The center and a delivery station in fall 2020 sit on the site of the former Pontiac Silverdome. The Silverdome was imploded in 2017 after falling into disrepair for more than a decade.

“For a long time after the Silverdome shut down the property was not being used,” he said. “For us we’re certainly part of the revitalization process for the city of Pontiac, creating job opportunities.”

Two other sites that recently opened are the Huron Charter Township XL Fulfillment Center, a 750,000- square-foot facility for heavy or bulky items, and the Walker Delivery Station, a 112,000-square-foot station employs more than 100 associates.

cwilliams@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @CWilliams_DN