SLIDELL, La. – One of the toughest secrets for Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer to keep is out. In fact, it’s a secret he kept for 15 months.
Amazon will break ground on a delivery station in the city within the next few weeks. The facility is expected to create hundreds of new jobs.
“We’re just excited to have the opportunity to have Amazon as a new member of our community,” Cromer said.
The center will be 140,000 square feet. It’s the last stop before final delivery to customers. Amazon is pledging the center will speed up delivery times around the greater St. Tammany Parish area.
“St. Tammany Parish is a good place to do business,” Cromer said. “There are opportunities here along this I-10, I-12, I-59 corridor that can compete with any place in the country as far as reaching out to a broad number of citizens and businesses in the region.”
Cromer is proud the city and parish closed the deal. He says Amazon did not ask for anything before choosing them.
“It’s a solid company. They are good corporate citizens. They recognized we worked with them really well to fast track this project and to get the project permitted,” Cromer said.
This will be Amazon’s third delivery station in the state.
Governor John Bel Edwards said, “We welcome the latest strategic investment in Louisiana by the world’s largest online retailer. This new 140,000-square-foot Amazon Delivery Station in Slidell brings hundreds of new jobs to our state and confirms Louisiana’s importance as a leading destination for distribution and logistics facilities. I am proud to welcome this new distribution site to Louisiana, and I look forward to Amazon’s continued investment in our state.”
Cromer said, “We welcome business here, we welcome the opportunity to join our community and we’re going to do what we have to do when people want to invest in our community to fast track them, get that money invested in our community as quickly as possible so they can get a return on their investment and so we can get an investment on the tax dollars it would generate.”
Amazon says pay will start at $15 an hour and employees will be eligible for a variety of benefits on day one.
Cromer hinted there could soon be more new business calling St. Tammany Parish home.