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May 11—From the outside, the facility looks as if it can fit a small town into it. And it probably can.
Amazon's newest fulfillment center, which opened on Albuquerque's West Side last fall, spans about 2.5 million square feet. Located at 12945 Ladera NW, the facility was built using about 20,000 tons of steel — equivalent to the amount of steel in three Eiffel Towers, said Dan Monson, assistant general manager for the fulfillment center.
The facility also has about 10 miles of conveyance and over 4,000 robotics drives — which "serve to make the lives and jobs of our associates easier and safer," Monson said. That ease in work from the help of technology allows the facility to process 10 packages per second.
Media members and city and state officials joined Amazon on Wednesday to tour the fulfillment center — the first official tour, Amazon officials said — to get a look into how the company that employs more than 3,500 in the state operates at its largest facility. The company also presented to the Economic Forum of Albuquerque at Hotel Albuquerque Wednesday morning, giving an update on the company's happenings in the state.
"We're bullish on New Mexico," said Amazon economic development policy manager for the Mountain West region, Sam Bailey, whose company also has nearby facilities for sorting and delivery. The company is also planning another massive fulfillment center in Los Lunas.
Local impact
Amazon officials said on Wednesday that the company has invested more than $2 billion in the state since first expanding into New Mexico.
Bailey said the company typically gravitates towards states that it can create a "synergy" with so that it can become a "hyperlocal company." He said there is room to invest more into New Mexico but that there are no plans yet outside of finishing the fulfillment center in Los Lunas.
"When we start to evaluate where customer demand is coming from, we want to be able to service them as quickly as possible," Bailey said. "And so, with New Mexico, we've validated this as a strong market for customers, and the sites that we choose connect us to our customers and logistics supply chain so we can do that in an efficient manner."
The company currently has a fulfillment center, sortation center and delivery center on Albuquerque's West Side and is planning another 1 million-square-foot facility in Los Lunas.
Bailey told the Journal that the new fulfillment center south of Albuquerque will employ about 600 workers when all is said and done. He declined to comment on a launch date for the new facility and said Amazon has yet to hire employees for it but said that supply chain issues have affected the timeline of the build-out.