An Amazon fulfillment center is coming to Visalia.
The online retail and tech giant will build its new warehouse in the Visalia Industrial Park, as first reported by The Sun-Gazette in Exeter.
Visalia Mayor Bob Link confirmed the development at the Sep. 21 city council meeting.
“It’s a 1.3 million square foot facility, and it’s a huge piece of property that they have put a fence around,” Link said. “It’s going to be a great item for our community. It’s going to be partly robotics and partly people, so it is going to be an opportunity for a number of jobs to become available for the city of Visalia.”
The new warehouse will be located at the Riggin Ave. and Plaza Dr. intersection, next to the recently constructed UPS distribution center.
Blake Steele of Gray Construction – the project contractor – told The Business Journal that the warehouse will be finished in 11 months and will require 300 construction workers at peak times.
Typically, an Amazon fulfillment center the size of the one under construction in Visalia employs over 1,000 people.
The Visalia outpost marks the third major step along the Highway 99 corridor for the Seattle-based e-commerce giant in three years.
Bakersfield recently held a grand opening for its own Amazon warehouse, following in the footsteps of the Fresno location which opened back in 2018.
With the Bakersfield location opening, Amazon started looking to hire 1,000 employees in August to staff the warehouse, which was scheduled to start operations in September.
Warehouse employees earn $15 per hour to start at the Bakersfield location, and full-time employees receive health benefits and a 401(k) program with a 50% match.
The company also offers the Career Choice program, which pays 95% of an employee’s tuition and fees for certificates and associate degrees in various fields, up to $12,000 over a four-year period.
