Amazon To Build East Coast Fulfillment Hub Near Fredericksburg

STAFFORD COUNTY, VA — Amazon plans to establish a new fulfillment center at an industrial park in Stafford County, a major win for Virginia, which competed with Maryland and North Carolina for the facility, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said Tuesday.

The 630,000 square-foot facility, to be located at the Northern Virginia Gateway site north of Fredericksburg, will serve as one of Amazon’s East Coast hubs. The facility will be responsible for the beginning of a supply chain in which products from third-party vendors are sorted, repacked, and distributed to other Amazon distribution centers.

The Northern Virginia Gateway site is on Centreport Parkway, off Interstate 95, about five miles north of Fredericksburg. The Amazon facility is expected to be operational in the second half of 2022 and will add 500 new jobs to Amazon’s existing workforce of more than 27,000 full- and part-time employees in the state.

“Virginia’s workers are making it possible for Amazon to continue growing in the Commonwealth,” Northam said in a statement. “This new fulfillment center will create 500 well-paying jobs in Stafford County.”

Amazon first launched its Virginia fulfillment operations in 2006 in Sterling. The company has grown its operations network to include more than 20 fulfillment and sortation centers, and delivery stations in the state.

In its biggest move to date in Virginia, Amazon picked Arlington for its second corporate headquarters in 2018, resulting in the creation of more than 25,000 jobs.

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Amazon announced a robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk and a processing center in Chesapeake in March 2020. In April, the company announced another state-of-the-art robotics fulfillment center at Richmond Raceway in Henrico County. Amazon also launched a new delivery center in Stafford County in October.

Over the last decade, Amazon’s investments have led to an additional $34 billion being contributed to Virginia’s economy and have helped create more than 96,000 indirect jobs in addition to Amazon’s direct hires.

“Since 2010, we have created more than 27,000 jobs in Virginia in communities from Springfield to Norfolk, and we are proud to expand our operations with this Fredericksburg facility,” Amazon Vice President of North America Customer Fulfillment Melissa Nick said in a statement Tuesday.

“Virginia’s talented workforce has been vital to our ability to serve our incredible customers and provide great selection and fast Prime shipping speeds across the region,” Nick said.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Stafford County and The Port of Virginia to secure the project for the state. Amazon is eligible to receive benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone Grant Program. Funding and services to support the company’s employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

Stafford County established the Centreport area as a logistics and distribution center and focused on attracting major brands, according to Stafford County Board of Supervisors Chair Crystal Vanuch. “We are proud that Amazon selected Stafford as the site for its cross-dock facility,” she said.

Amazon will be the lead tenant of the Northern Virginia Gateway project — a 1.9-million-square-feet site — under development by Fairfax County-based Peterson Companies.

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