Progress continues on a $200 million Amazon robotic fulfillment center in Shreveport.

The center is being built on a 135- acre site on Corporate Drive, near Caddo Correctional Center. The location offers access to Interstates 20, 49 and 220.

The multi-story facility is built on a 650,000-squarefoot foundation and will be the largest of Amazon’s seven in Louisiana. Employees there will fulfill, pack and ship smaller customer orders.

One of every five U.S. residents lives within a 500- mile radius of Shreveport, making the location enviable for distribution and logistics companies. Amazon will begin construction of its Shreveport fulfillment center immediately, with plans to open the site in September 2022 in time for its busiest e-commerce season.

Gov. John Bel Edwards officially announced the project in May of this year. At that time, Edwards said the project would bring almost 3,000 jobs to the area — 1,000 direct jobs, 1,118 indirect jobs and about 800 construction jobs.

Jobs will start at $15 an hour, with benefits including full medical, vision and dental insurance, and 401(k) savings with a 50 percent company match.

The hiring of most employees for Amazon’s Shreveport fulfillment center will begin in the summer of 2022, approximately three months before the facility’s launch. To keep up-to-date with career opportunities at Amazon in Shreveport, visit https://opportunities.ledfaststart.com/AmazonShreveport.

Businesses interested in learning more about procurement opportunities once the Amazon Shreveport Robotics Fulfillment Center becomes operational should provide their company information to an Amazon procurement manager by emailing amazon-nafc-procurement@amazon.com.

Amazon began formal negotiations with Louisiana Economic Development and its partners about the project in August 2020. To secure the project, the state of Louisiana offered the company a competitive incentive package that includes the comprehensive workforce solutions of LED FastStart, the nation’s No. 1 workforce training and talent attraction program. Amazon will be eligible for a $5 million performance-based grant payable in two installments during 2022 and 2023 to offset infrastructure costs. The Caddo Parish Industrial Development Board also is negotiating a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement with the company.

To date, Amazon’s committed investment in Louisiana is more than $600 million and includes seven Whole Foods Market locations, including one in Shreveport.