MERRILLVILLE | An unceasing river of brown cardboard packages flows along conveyor belts in Amazon's new 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center, which is believed to be the largest single building ever constructed in Northwest Indiana to date.
Lasers scan the boxes, determining the weight and size. A pneumatic arm slaps on a packaging sticker. An automated system scans each parcel and uploads the information into the cloud so Amazon can track its exact whereabouts at any given moment.
Workers sort the packages, prep the products if necessary such as to keep liquids from spilling and load them into the back of semi-trucks bound for Amazon distribution centers all over the country.
Amazon PPO4, named after an airport code for easy identification, can process up to hundreds of thousands of packages weekly at 9850 Mississippi St. in the new Silos at Sanders Farm business park in Merrillville. The recently opened facility already employs more than 500 workers and is still hiring, Amazon spokesman Andre Woodson said.
It's paying workers at least $20.50 an hour to receive orders from Amazon sellers from across the country and ship them off to the warehouses that help fill the orders customers make online.
"(We've) received tremendous support and enthusiasm from the community and elected officials who have helped make this facility a reality," Amazon PPO4 Site Leader Mary Beth Klippel said. "Today, we proudly showcase our newest fulfillment center. This building is operated by your neighbors, your friends and our employees who receive, sort and process inventory. They represent every corner of our local community."
Amazon held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with elected officials, the chamber of commerce and other dignitaries Wednesday. It also operates a last-mile distribution center in the AmeriPlex at the Crossroads business park just on the other side of Interstate 65. It gave a $10,000 donation to the Boys & Girls Club of Northwest Indiana.
"Amazon's impact in Merrillville extends far beyond this community," Klippel said. "Since launching in Indiana, we've grown to employ 26,000 full-time and part-time employees across the Hoosier State with more growth ahead. Our $25.5 billion investment in state infrastructure and employee compensation has contributed to the Indiana's economy and generated nearly 30,000 indirect jobs in construction, logistics and personal and professional services."
The new Merrillville fulfillment center is part of Amazon's intricate nationwide logistics network that makes it possible for a one-click purchase to end up on one's doorstep in 48 hours. It moves packages around the country while its sibling facility that opened a few years earlier across the highway is the last stop packages make before delivery vans take them to one's doorstep.
"Our Merrillville facility serves a crucial role in our fulfillment network," she said. "Here, we receive and consolidate inventory from independent sellers, primarily small and medium-sized businesses, before distributing to nearby fulfillment centers for customer delivery. More than 60% of the items sold in our store come from small- and medium-sized businesses, including many right here in Merrillville. We're proud to support nearly 1 million selling partners globally with 5,500 of these independent sellers based in Indiana."
The new Amazon fulfillment center receives products from all over the country and ships them to two distribution centers in Indiana, one in Tennessee, one in California and one in New Jersey. Workers load tens of semi-trucks a day of outbound goods.
"Indiana is a great state to do business and provides a strategic location, a dedicated and talented workforce and a robust public infrastructure," she said.
Dallas-based Crow Holdings, which developed a few buildings across Interstate 65 in AmeriPlex at the Crossroads, built the 1 million square foot building on spec, later signing Amazon to a long-term lease. Councilman Shawn Pettit got a text at 9:30 p.m. on a Friday night last March letting him know Amazon signed a lease.
"You are now in the epicenter of economic development in Lake County. The amount of money that has gone into this development and Silos at Sanders Farms is astronomic, something none of us have seen in the 50-plus-year history of Merrillville," Pettit said.
Merrillville widened Mississippi Street with federal funds. Two months later, Crow Holdings started developing a new business park just off I-65.
"The old adage from 'Field of Dreams' is if you build it, they will come," he said. "I got a phone call from a young man, Sean Andrews with Crow Holdings. He said, 'Shawn, we just bought the farm.' We chuckled. We just bought the Sanders Farm, 195 acres for $15 million."
Crow Holdings developed four massive buildings in Silos at Sanders Farm. The Amazon building's shell cost $67 million to build and Amazon has since spent $25 million on the interior remodeling.
"One of our best developers in town is Crow Holdings," Pettit said. "Anything they touch, they turn to gold."
The developer spent $350,000 to buy the fire department new radios, he said. Merrillville's economic development team also deserves credit for doing yeoman's work to make it happen, he said.
"We have the best economic development team in Lake County and maybe the state," he said. "This is the kind of economic development we want to see in Merrillville. To quote the late Bruce White, this is a multigenerational facility that we have. This part, Silos at Sanders Farm, is multigenerational and will last us for decades to come."
The gargantuan warehouse offers training for employees, including safety training on how to ergonomically lift the packages of up to 50 lbs. that come in. After passing through the entrance gates, workers pass through a wellness zone where they stretch out before lifting and moving around packages.
No inventory is stored there. Most packages move through in fewer than three days. Some packages can pass through in as little as half an hour.
Workers sort packages to send them on their way to their destinations, such as if they're ultimately heads to Indianapolis, Fort Wayne or Memphis, Klippel said. They wrap products to make sure they don't break or leak liquids. They for instance will put a top seal on to make sure the top of a container doesn't pop off, resulting in people getting a gross or sticky package.
A vendor might send 50 phone cases to the fulfillment center. Workers would divide it up and send 10 phone cases to different warehouses around the country to ensure they're as close as possible to the customers in order to optimize delivery time.
"That's what enables our two-day shipping," she said.
Workers stuff thousands of containers into each semi-trailer every single day.
"Just imagine playing Tetris with a bunch of different boxes, some very small boxes, some very large boxes," she said. "They're loading them in there to maximize the space but also to keep everything safe. It's easy for a load to have issues on the way. If we're doing that job properly, it will make sure at the next facility, when they open that trailer up, everything will be exactly where it's supposed to be, so nothing falls."
The facility likely will hire more temporary staff to help during busy periods, including Prime Day, Cyber Monday and the holiday season.
The jobs and wages are a significant addition to Merrillville, Interim Town Manager Michael Griffin said.
"Look at the amount of investment this has brought. It's the first million-square-foot facility in Northwest Indiana. We're very proud of that," he said. "The 500 jobs they have are considerable. This is 500 jobs that we're here before that pay $20 an hour. That's significant for all of Lake County."