Amazon's new 1-million-square-foot warehouse in The Silos at Sanders Farm off Interstate 65 in Merrillville went live Wednesday and will employ approximately 1,000 workers by April, making it the town's largest employer.
Town Councilman Shawn Pettit said Amazon has started moving packages at the massive building at 9850 Mississippi Street. The e-commerce giant is still hiring for the facility and expects to have around 1,000 workers by the time it reaches 24/7 operations in Merrillville.
Merrillville Fire Marshal Bob Pillman, who toured the facility with Pettit and other town officials this week, said the warehouse could end up hiring for up to 1,500 jobs in the future.
"It's like its own little city," Pillman said. "It's very self-sufficient. It has its own security, its own maintenance, its own first aid, its own lactation station inside the facility. It's a very self-sufficient facility. I don't imagine it will be a tax on resources in the town. Amazon has a good plan. It's a billion-dollar company. They're very efficient."
Amazon is leasing the 1-million-square-foot building, one of the largest ever constructed in Northwest Indiana from Dallas-based Crow Holdings. It will serve as an inbound cross-dock, or IXD, facility, which receives products from vendors and ships them to Amazon fulfillment centers. An IXD facility does not ship orders directly to customers the way the Amazon Fulfillment Center just across I-65 in Merrillville does.
"Basically what they do is that vendors bring products to the east side of the building, they have an elaborate high-tech system to check them in and then they ship them across the Midwest on I-65," Pettit said. "They load up outbound trucks at a second location. It's very high security. It ships products from vendors to other Amazon facilities, smaller ones, the fulfillment centers that deliver products to people's doorsteps."
Merrillville gave Crow Holdings property tax incentives that will encourage it to hire at least 10% Merrillville residents.
"They're in the process of hiring now. They have banners hung up, but there are already people working in there. It won't be fully staffed until April," Pettit said. "It's obviously huge for economic development. It will mean a huge boom in job creation in town. We have 55 to 70 vendors hiring at our annual job fair and no one comes close. Methodist Hospital may have around 500 employees in Merrillville. Amazon will be the biggest employer in town when it's fully staffed."
Seattle-based Amazon did not immediately respond to messages. The e-commerce giant signed a long-term lease at the massive Silos at Sanders Farm Building 2 with 79 loading docks, 527 car parking spaces, 765 trailer spaces and an 18.48-acre industrial outdoor storage yard.
Crow Holdings invested at least $90 million into the building, which was originally constructed on spec or without a tenant lined up.
In 2021, Amazon opened a $30 million, 190,000-square-foot delivery station in the AmeriPlex at the Crossroads business park along Broadway in Merrillville, where it already employed a few hundred workers. The delivery station just across the interstate highway from the new warehouse handles the last step in the distribution of products to customers, taking packages on the "final mile" to customers' doors.
Amazon has created a very efficient operation inside the new warehouse in the Silos at Sanders Farm industrial park, Pillman said.
"Products come in and are shipped out to different regions no more than 10 minutes after they're dropped off," he said. "It's amazing for the town of Merrillville that Amazon is bringing this year. It's a great opportunity for employment."
The warehouse has been training workers for weeks and is doing a soft launch with one daytime shift. It will eventually work up to three shifts for 24/7 operations nearly every day of the year except for maybe Christmas, Pillman said.
"It's a very impressive facility the way everything is set up," he said. "It takes 10 minutes for products to go in and out. It's mind-blowing they're able to do as much as they do. The amount of packages they can move is astronomical."
Pillman said it should employ workers from across Northwest Indiana, paying sustainable wages that can support a family.
"It's a million square feet but it doesn't feel that massive inside because they're so well-organized. They have specific walking paths where it's safe to walk from one area to another while forklifts run in and out," he said. "It's so fluid the design. There's no chaos. It's the slower season now after Christmas and they're working out the bugs. It should be fully operational by April. It's very impressive with the size and magnitude."