When will Montgomery County's Amazon distribution center launch?

Jimmy Settle, Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle
·2 min read
An Amazon robotics drive unit, which is expected to be part of the Clarksville distribution center.
An Amazon robotics drive unit, which is expected to be part of the Clarksville distribution center.

Amazon likes what it sees in the Clarksville-Montgomery County market and still plans to open the $100 million distribution center on Guthrie Highway despite corporate plans to delay expansion for its warehouse network, a company spokeswoman said.

It's just not clear when the building will open.

In response to an inquiry from The Leaf-Chronicle, Divina Mims, area public relations manager for Amazon, confirmed that the company is still a go here, eventually, despite what's happening corporate-wide.

Amazon began expanding its network of "fulfillment", or distribution centers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but has more-recently delayed or canceled the launch of more than a dozen warehouses across the country.

The new distribution center in northeast Montgomery County is expected to employ 500 people.

More: $35 million Montgomery County facility to become part of FedEx distribution network

More: A cutthroat industry: How Clarksville construction companies are dealing with labor shortage

The main building can be seen through concrete pipe resting on the outskirts at the construction site for the future Amazon Distribution Center in Clarksville, Tenn., on Thursday, March 3, 2022.
The main building can be seen through concrete pipe resting on the outskirts at the construction site for the future Amazon Distribution Center in Clarksville, Tenn., on Thursday, March 3, 2022.

But it has already missed its original target opening of July with no clear word at the corporate, or local levels, of what happened or why there were opening delays.

Mims sought to clear the air in an emailed response to The Leaf-Chronicle on Tuesday, indicating that the changing environment for Amazon's distribution network is tied to current economics.

"There are a variety of factors that we take into account when deciding to launch a building, such as customer demand, a dedicated workforce and great local support – and we’ve found all of those in Montgomery County and surrounding communities," Mims said.

More: From the Home Front: Where is Clarksville-Montgomery County heading with growth, industry?

"We still plan to launch a new facility in Clarksville, providing many great jobs to the area," she said.

The starting pay for Montgomery County's fulfillment center is still projected at $15 an hour "with comprehensive benefits from day one.

"The only thing that’s changed with our plans is the exact timing. We are a dynamic business, and we have dozens of fulfillment centers, sortation centers and delivery stations that are evolving and under construction across the country.

"It’s common for us to adjust launch timetables based on capacity needs across the network."

USA Today contributed to this report.

Reach Jimmy Settle at jimmysettle@theleafchronicle.com or 931-245-0247. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to TheLeafChronicle.com.

This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: When will Montgomery County's Amazon distribution center launch?