Amazon now has 16 facilities in Utah, with another one opening in 2022, spokesperson says

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As Amazon continues to expand in Utah and another facility is scheduled to open next year, residents may wonder where exactly the company is based and whether it has fulfilled promises made in exchange for millions of dollars in tax incentives.

After The Salt Lake Tribune toured Amazon’s fulfillment center in Salt Lake City, west of the international airport, this summer, there is an update on the online retail and distribution giant’s presence in Utah.

Amazon currently has 16 facilities across the state – including sorting centers, delivery stations, corporate offices, and PillPack, Amazon’s pharmacy distribution center – and has hired 8,000 full-time and part-time employees by the end of 2020, Natalie Wolfrom, company spokesperson, wrote in an email.

It’s difficult to break down exactly how many people work at each location, Wolfrom said, “because it’s so flexible, especially during peak hours.” [times]However, she said the fulfillment center in Salt Lake City at 777 N. 5600 West employs approximately 3,900 people, while a warehouse on 7148 W. Old Bingham Highway in West Jordan employs 1,100 people.

Wolfrom provided an incomplete address list of the 16 institutions. There are at least seven facilities in Salt Lake City, two in West Jordan, and one each in West Valley City, American Fork, and North Salt Lake. Wolfrom also said that Amazon is based in Cedar City, but a city official told The Tribune that it had no business license listed for the company.

The online retail and distribution giant Amazon has at least 10 sorting, fulfillment and delivery facilities along the Wasatch front.

In November, Amazon opens a new 150,000 square foot “mini” fulfillment center at 6338 W. 700 North in Salt Lake City, where orders and deliveries are prepared on the same day.

The company is also opening a facility in Marriott-Slaterville, near Ogden, next year, but a specific date has not been announced.

“This facility is our last mile connection between our larger facilities,” said Wolfrom. “… In these buildings, orders are prepared for delivery to customers on the last mile.”

In June, The Tribune was invited by Amazon to take a close look at the fulfillment center in Salt Lake City, where crews prepare the packages that land in the Utahns’ mailboxes and on their doorstep. The facility is 855,000 square meters and has 24 kilometers of conveyor belts. Flat orange robots move yellow towers filled with items for workers to load and unload.

The fulfillment center in Salt Lake City mostly handles small items, a spokesman said, while larger items are moved in the West Jordan location.

(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) Robots direct booths with multiple different orders during a tour of the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, June 10, 2021.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the temperature of employees was taken and masks were handed out as they went through security to enter the building. Points along the floor were reminiscent of social distance, with partitions to divert traffic in different directions. Video screens showed employees when they got too close to other people.

A COVID-19 testing area was located near the front of the facility next to the company’s injury prevention center. Rodrigo Ortigoza, senior operations manager, said the facility never closed during the pandemic but instead took security measures and regularly asked staff for feedback.

The center has hosted vaccination events for employees and their families. Amazon also held a sweepstakes for fully vaccinated workers, and in October Nicholaus Curd of Salt Lake City won a new car valued at $ 40,000, Wolfrom said.

“This is really crazy,” said Curd in a press release. “Since I don’t have a car, I take Lyft and Uber to work every day.”

Curd was initially reluctant to get vaccinated, according to an Amazon press release, but ultimately chose the vaccine because he was living with someone who was at higher risk of complications from the virus, as well as to protect his family, friends, and co-workers .

Lourdes Perez-Monroy has organized some of the vaccination clinics at the Fulfillment Center in Salt Lake City and helps with virtual tours. She was studying psychology at the University of California, Merced when the coronavirus pandemic broke out. So she moved to Utah to be with her family and took a job at Amazon as a stevedore.

“I still plan to go back to school,” said Perez-Monroy. “And thanks to Amazon, we have a lot of resources to go back to school and work at the same time,” such as the Career Choice program.

(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) Lourdes Perez-Monroy, a stevedore, organized and packaged items during a tour of the Amazon fulfillment center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, June 10, 2021. Perez-Monroy worked at vaccination clinics at . helped set up for employees and their families during the coronavirus pandemic.

When Amazon opened its fulfillment center near Salt Lake City International Airport a few years ago, the state agreed to tax breaks of $ 5.6 million if the company met certain benchmarks, such as paying above that Salt Lake County’s average wage for some of the jobs.

Tony Young, spokesman for the governor’s office of Economic Opportunity, said the state is “unable to publicly review the status” of Amazon’s award and any tax credits the company has received.

“We strive to always be as transparent as possible,” wrote Young in an email, “while maintaining trust with the company and protecting proprietary documents.”

He added, “A company must comply with all reporting requirements, which we independently review before they can claim their tax credit,” and the files “are regularly audited by outside third parties to ensure compliance with the program’s bylaws.”

Wolfrom said that Amazon “met and exceeded the requirements of this program and” [is] We are both partnering with the state to grow this facility and our staffing team is working with the state Department of Labor to bring more quality jobs to Utah. “

(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) Employees walk around the Amazon fulfillment center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, June 10, 2021.

Officials from West Jordan previously approved $ 1.6 million in incentives for Amazon to set up a fulfillment center in the city, and Amazon agreed to build roads, water pipes and rain drains “at a cost beyond the value of the deal” .

These improvements have since been “built, inspected and accepted by the West Bank city,” wrote Tauni Barker, the city’s director of community engagement and government affairs, in an email, and the $ 1.6 million was raised locally [redevelopment agency] as “reimbursement for the infrastructure work carried out in advance by the client”.

“There was no job tie in the agreement,” said Barker.

Wolfrom said, “When we invest in such facilities, we are also investing in the surrounding community and helping to modernize the infrastructure, including new roads, water pipes, etc. We are investing a significant amount of money to fund the infrastructure improvements.”

(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) Vendor processor Joclyne Herrera will take part in routes as part of a WorkingWell huddle during a tour of the Amazon fulfillment center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, June 10, 2021. Amazon is committed to reducing workplace injuries by 50% by 2025 with its WorkingWell program.

(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) An employee moves during a tour of the Amazon shipping center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan.

(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) During a tour of the Amazon shipping center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan.

(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) A trailer truck leaves the Amazon shipping center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, June 10, 2021.

(Isaac Hale | Special to The Tribune) Incoming stevedore Averill Arthur organizes items during a tour of the Amazon fulfillment center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, June 10, 2021.