Jun. 30—EAU CLAIRE — The "last mile" for Eau Claire customers who use Amazon's premium service is closer than it used to be.

On June 9 the e-commerce giant opened one of its new delivery facilities at 1945 Prairie Lane in Eau Claire's Gateway Northwest Business Park.

It's one of Amazon's new rural/super-rural operations focused on ensuring its Prime customers in communities of about 60,000 people get the two-day delivery that comes with an annual subscription fee they pay.

The concentration of Amazon Prime customers who regularly buy from the company helped convince it to establish a warehouse in Eau Claire. Another Wisconsin city to the west along the St. Croix River had also been in the running.

"We were competing with Hudson for the most packages per ZIP code," said Andrew Thom, Amazon's site lead in Eau Claire.

The Eau Claire warehouse currently handles about 1,000 packages per day. That figure along with the workforce is set to grow.

"Our goal is to get up to 25,000 packages per day," Thom said.

Currently there are 47 employees there, many of them working part-time shifts to sort packages, but also some full-time managerial positions. The facility will eventually employ 200, Thom said.

The Amazon facility in Eau Claire is known as WWI3 — the company's shorthand for the third warehouse of its kind to serve Amazon Prime customers in Wisconsin. The other two opened earlier this year in La Crosse and just over the state line in Dubuque, Iowa.

Max Flynn, an area manager visiting from WWI2 in Dubuque, helped get the Eau Claire operation up and running. He said these size facilities are intended to deliver packages to Prime customers within a 60-mile radius.

Driving the packages from the warehouses to customers is the job of third-party companies hired by Amazon and everyday people who work part-time as delivery drivers.

Borac is the third-party logistics company Amazon is contracting with to do most of the deliveries from the Eau Claire warehouse.

Currently the local fleet of delivery vans are rentals, but others carrying the company's logo will soon be arriving in Eau Claire.

"Amazon vans are on their way," Thom said.

Amazon also launched its Amazon Flex service in the Eau Claire area, which gives people the ability to use their personal vehicles to deliver packages. Drivers 21 and older who have a four-door vehicle, valid drivers license and pass a background check can sign up through the Amazon Flex app to handle package delivery routes.

"Any person with a four-door car can deliver for us," Flynn said.

In Dubuque, he said Amazon Flex is popular among college students, senior citizens and mothers.

Prior to WWI3, the "last mile" delivery to the doorsteps of Prime customers in Eau Claire had been handled by the U.S. Postal Service or other shippers such as FedEx.

The building Amazon moved into in Eau Claire had once been used by FedEx Ground (FedEx now operates from a larger building in the same business park). To create additional parking for its workforce in Eau Claire, Amazon also purchased a vacant 6.4-acre lot next to the warehouse.

Recruiting Amazon to come to Eau Claire was done by the private sector, but the online retail giant's arrival is also welcome news to the city.

"It's nice to have that kind of project come forward. That gets us on the radar of a national/international company," said Aaron White, Eau Claire's economic development manager.

Reusing an existing building in a prime location were other pluses that White saw in the deal. The business park's location is a good fit for companies like Amazon that need convenient access to major transportation routes, he noted.

"There's a lot of opportunities to get to four-lane highways to facilitate longer hauls," he said.

The business park has easy access to Interstate 94, U.S. 12, U.S. 53 and Highway 29.

Amazon's growth into smaller cities also has proven appealing to its workers looking or a change of scenery.

Kevin Kemp, a manager at WWI3 who specializes in dispatching, came to Eau Claire after working in one of Amazon's giant fulfillment centers in California.

He gladly made the move to the Midwest for the opportunity to work in a much smaller facility that was starting from scratch.

"Here we're starting to build a new culture fresh," he said. "We're starting with a very efficient building — in one side and out the other. We are able to start small, grow and focus on quality."

Kemp is also looking to be part of the company's efforts to do volunteer work and participate in local charitable causes.

"I really like the concept of partnering with the community," he said.

While this is Amazon's first location in Eau Claire, the company already has numerous other buildings throughout Wisconsin. That includes eight fulfillment and sortation centers, seven delivery stations and three Whole Foods Market locations in the state, according to information from Amazon.