DELTONA − When Amazon opened its massive 1.4 million-square-foot "first-mile" fulfillment center on North Normandy Boulevard in September 2020, city officials predicted it would become a magnet for more distribution centers.

Little could they guess at the time that Amazon itself would be the first in line to add the city's next one.

Amazon spokesman Greg Rios confirmed that the e-commerce giant plans to open a second logistics facility in Deltona directly across the street from its existing first-mile fulfullment center at 2600 N. Normandy Blvd.

"The new pre-first-mile Amazon facility in Deltona is 1 million square feet and will be the first of its kind in Florida," said Greg Rios, a spokesman in Orlando for the Seattle-based e-commerce giant. "A pre-first-mile facility stores product before going to fulfillment centers. At a fulfillment center like the existing one in Deltona, associates (Amazon employees) are actually picking, packing and shipping the product once the customer has placed their order."

Rios said the pre-first-mile fulfillment center at 2601 N. Normandy Blvd. is on track to open sometime in 2024. "As we get closer to the opening, we'll work with local partners and community organizations to host career fairs in the area to help fill more than 200 jobs."

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Part of city's new I-4 Logistics Park

The building, the shell of which was completed earlier this year by developer Seefried Industries and general contractor The Conlan Company, is the first of several planned distribution facilities at the newly dubbed I-4 Logistics Park along the east side of North Normandy Boulevard.

The planned 130-acre development site was previously being marketed as the Portland Industrial Park and is located directly south of the 12-screen Epic Theatres of West Volusia movie house.

Keith Norden, the CEO of Team Volusia Economic Development Corp., said Seefried has three other buildings planned for the I-4 Logistics Park. "One will be 500,000 square feet. The other two will be smaller. We're excited to have more available industrial buildings being developed. It's much easier to have companies look at our region if there's available existing or soon-to-be-completed buildings as opposed to having to build from scratch," he said.

Deltona Vice Mayor Anita Bradford, a long-serving city commissioner who represents the area that includes the existing and future Amazon facilities, said she found out about the e-commerce giant's decision to add the pre-first-mile fulfillment center on Tuesday at a grand opening event for a new Checker's fast-food eatery off of Saxon Boulevard.

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More jobs coming

"I asked Jerry Mayes (the city's economic development manager) who was going to occupy the new building across the street from Amazon and he said 'Amazon,'" she said, adding that the news came as a surprise.

"There were other logistics users looking at that building so I know more are coming (to the I-4 Logistics Park), which means more jobs for Deltona," she said.

The area, just east of the Interstate 4/State Road 472 interchange, offers easy access to both I-4 as well as nearby Interstate 95, making it an ideal location for companies in need of distribution centers, according to Keith Norden, whose group has been involved in recruiting Amazon to Volusia County.

The effort to help Amazon find a location for its planned pre-first-mile facility was codenamed "Project Rooster," he said. No economic incentives were involved, he added.

"We'd been working with the developer (Seefried) to find users for their new I-4 Logistics Park," said Norden. "We actively showed the building to a variety of users. We've also been working with Amazon to find expansion sites in Volusia County since 2013. This will be their fourth facility, including the (66,000-square-foot) last-mile delivery station in Daytona Beach (that opened in September 2019) and the (2.8-million) robotics fulfillment center that's under construction just south of Daytona International Speedway."

Atlanta-based Seefried Industries was also the developer of the existing Amazon first-mile fulfillment center in Deltona. The Conlan Company was also that project's general contractor. "Seefried's partner in the I-4 Logistic Park is USAA, which owns the property," said Norden.

USAA is a national San Antonio, Texas-based company that provides banking and insurance services to people and families who either serve or have served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The cost to build out and equip the interior of Amazon's planned pre-first-mile logistics facility is expected to be more than $30 million.

"We're told the interior build-out could take as long as 12 months," Norden said.

Amazon currently employs 1,500 full-time employees at its existing Deltona fulfillment center as well as several hundred part-timers, he said.

Bradford said Amazon's decision to locate its pre-first-mile facility in Deltona may have been influenced in part by the availability of workers.

"They see that Deltona has the workforce and we have the new apartments going in next to the movie theater that could accommodate more potential workers," she said.

"When I got elected (to the city commission) in 2016, I wanted people to be able to eat, sleep and work where they live," she said. At the time Deltona, the county's most populous city with over 100,000 residents, was considered largely a bedroom community with the vast majority of its residents employed elsewhere including neighboring counties.

"We will soon no longer need to cross the (I-4) bridge to go to work," she said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Amazon adds 2nd fulfillment center in Deltona; set to open in 2024