It has been a year since North Little Rock announced that Amazon would open a “new concept” facility near the junction of Interstates 30 and 40, and there are signs the online retail giant will stick around a while longer, Mayor Joe Smith said in a recent interview.
He said Amazon isn’t ready to make anything official, but the city has 17 acres to offer for a permanent facility or expansion. A permanent or expanded facility would require at least 10-15 acres and could create up to 300 jobs, according to the mayor.
“We certainly hope that they want to grow their business here in North Little Rock, and we’re more than happy to help them find additional property if they want to grow and build a bigger distribution center,” he said. “We’ve reached out to them, and they’re not quite ready, I don’t think, to start the process of trying to figure out if they’re going to grow or not. So we’ve tried to be patient. We want to be aggressive, but we also understand that they’re trying to develop this market and it takes some time to do that. … I’ve got a perfect piece of property for them, so I’m willing and ready to show it to them when they’re ready and willing to listen.”
Smith also said he expects Amazon to stay in North Little Rock for two or three more years.
His reasoning is twofold. First, from the beginning of the project, city officials were told the company would be evaluating this market for a few years. “I feel very comfortable that, once they have had time to analyze this market, that they will want to stay here permanently and on a much larger scale,” Smith said.
Second, the company is paving the parking lot and installing permanent water and wastewater on the property it is leasing: 4.47 acres at 1620 N. Locust St.
“It’s comforting to read between the lines a little bit. Any time we have any company come in to hire 75 to 100 people, we’re excited about that. So we’re glad they’re here,” Smith said. “And, with the upgrading on the infrastructure for that property … that leads me to believe that they are pleased with the facility and how this distribution center is working at this time.”
The online retail giant calls its 14,760-SF facility in North Little Rock a “delivery station” and said by email that delivery stations “power the last mile of our customer order process and help speed up deliveries for customers.”
Packages are shipped to delivery stations from neighboring Amazon fulfillment and sorting centers, then loaded onto vehicles to get delivered to customers.
Asked to explain the “new concept” city officials touted when the project was announced, the company said by email, “While the majority of our permanent delivery stations are in traditional warehouse space, some of our sites have a smaller footprint, which enables Amazon to expand its last-mile operations to more locations in order to speed up deliveries for Amazon customers.”
On why it chose to open a delivery station in North Little Rock, Amazon said, “We look at the workforce and found talent in abundance in Little Rock. We’re also responding to customer demand and want to make sure our delivery stations are close to customers so we can offer great Prime service and fast shipping speeds.”
The company declined to disclose how many people it employs in North Little Rock, but said delivery stations create hundreds of part-time and full-time jobs plus hundreds more jobs for drivers who work for small package delivery companies or are independent contractors through the Amazon Flex program.
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