The new two-million square foot Amazon Canada fulfillment facility between London and St. Thomas is set to open Oct. 1.
The megacompany confirmed the opening date Wednesday, adding it will begin hiring more than 1,000 full-time employees at the start of September.
“Amazon is committed supporting the long-term economic vibrancy of Southwold Township,” Harsh Khaitan, director of regional operations at Amazon Canada, said in a statement. “We look forward to supporting this community and continuing to deliver exceptional service to our customers.”
According to Amazon Canada, the facility with a robotics fulfilment centre where employees pick, pack and ship customer orders alongside their robotic technology.
“It is great news for the whole Southwold area,” Mayor Grant Jones told Global News. “We had a short tour Monday afternoon with Amazon reps and the inside of the place is quite impressive.
“The revitalization of the site offers new opportunities for our local residents and region for years to come.”
The facility is located at the former Ford assembly plant in Talbotville. It has been under construction for a number of years after the land was purchased by Broccolini.
“Obviously we took quite a hit when Ford left and it’s taken us a long time to get back on our feet,” Grant said. “Amazon is going to be a major part of getting up and going again for stabilizing our taxes.”
St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston, whose city neighbours Talbotville and Southwold Township, tells Global News the new facility brings a significant economic benefit to southwestern Ontario.
“Whether it’s St. Thomas or the surrounding area, we all have been attracting a lot of new residents to our area and one of the things that has to happen with that level of growth is increasing the level of jobs,” Preston said.
“Amazon hiring a 1,000 people makes it easy for us to continue the growth we are seeing in southern Ontario.”
While the Amazon facility will employ over 1,000 people, it is set to be eclipsed in a few years by the incoming Volkswagen battery plant, which aims to employ 3,000 people directly.
Both Preston and Grant acknowledge there might be some growing pains from the changes new factories offering thousands of jobs will bring. But both are optimistic the long-term future is bright.
“We know on the municipal level in Southwold, we have a lot of things we need to do in the near future to keep ahead of the growth,” Grant said.
On the provincial level, the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is in the process of studying the widening of Highway 3 from Centennial Avenue to Ron McNeil Line and building a new bypass around Talbotville. The new bypass would connect to Highway 4.
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