This article was written by John Sowell of the Idaho Statesman.
When Amazon opens its new Boise sorting operation later this year, the Seattle online retailer will employ more than 4,000 warehouse workers in the Treasure Valley.
The sorting center, with an estimated construction cost of $508,000, is set to open with 1,000 full- and part-time workers, Amazon spokesperson Anne Laughlin Carpita said by email.
“We are proud to be adding new jobs to the more than 3,000 Amazonians already working in the state,” Marcus Buford, regional director of Amazon’s sort center operations, said by email.
The 4,000 employees would move Amazon to No. 8 among Idaho’s largest employers. St. Luke’s Health System, with more than 14,000 employees, is the state’s largest employer, according to the Idaho Department of Labor. Amazon would be just behind Albertsons Companies and Battelle Energy Alliance, an Idaho National Laboratory contractor in Idaho Falls, who have more than 4,000 employees each.
In the Treasure Valley, Amazon would become the fourth-largest employer, behind St. Luke’s, Micron Technology and Saint Alphonsus Health System, according to the Boise Valley Economic Partnership.
The building at 2155 Freight St., at the Boise Gateway Industrial Park, is set to have 260,427 square feet of warehouse space and nearly 17,000 square feet of office space.
Packages get shipped to the sorting center from large Amazon fulfillment centers, including the one that opened off Interstate 84 in Nampa in November. The boxes, ready for shipment, are sorted according to the final destination and consolidated on trucks for faster delivery.
That will give Amazon four area warehouses with a fifth on the way, in Meridian. The company is building a 140,000-square-foot delivery station at Franklin and Ten Mile roads, although a spokesperson said she did not have any information to share on that project.
Here are Amazon’s existing warehouses:
- The Nampa fulfillment center, at 650,000 square feet, is Amazon’s largest warehouse in Idaho. It’s filled with household goods, books, toys and electronics shipped primarily to customers in the Treasure Valley. It employs 2,500.
- At Amazon’s AMXL shop at 3920 E. Lanark St. in Meridian, 60 employees sort and deliver large items such as mattresses, furniture, sports equipment, and bulk cleaning supplies.
- The company’s delivery station at 6752 Business Way in Boise is where Amazon’s blue delivery vans pick up packages for delivery to customers’ homes and businesses.
Through Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner Program, five partner businesses with hundreds of employees have been created to handle package deliveries throughout the Treasure Valley.
Amazon jobs listings can be found online. Job seekers can also sign up for text alerts by texting BOISENOW1 to 77088.
Amazon offers a starting wage of at least $15 an hour, along with health care benefits and a retirement plan.
