-Business wire via AP
Amazon vans as this will be a more common show around Fort Dodge after the company has opened a delivery station of the last mile in the city. The station will be built in the Decker development park along the first southern avenue on the east side of the city.
The online retail giant Amazon bought a property in Fort Dodge and plans to build a delivery station there.
The real estate purchase and the general plan of the site were confirmed by Scott Seroka, responsible for PR operations for the company.
The property is along the first South avenue near the 42nd street in the Decker development park.
Seroka was unable to provide a calendar for the construction of the last Mile delivery station.
Local leaders welcomed the news of the planned establishment.
“I am really excited to see the opportunity in the Decker development park,” said Mayor Matt Bemrich. “It’s great.”
Astra Ferris, chief executive officer of Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance, described the announcement of Amazon as another example of good things that happen when there is collaboration between the government and the private sector.
“There is no better time than now for investment in our community,” she said. “With our workforce, it makes sense for private investment.”
Seroka said that a delivery station for the last Mile is the “final point of contact with the Amazon logistics system”. This is where the packages are sorted and loaded in vans for delivery to customers.
“The packages arrive during the night while you sleep, they are unloaded, scanned, sorted and carefully placed in bins and carts,” he wrote in an email to the messenger. “The packages are only in the installation for a few short hours.”
He wrote that the installation of Fort Dodge was “part of a larger investment to help us fill the gaps in our network of delivery systems”.
He said he had no details on building size or the number of employees will work there.
In an article on the Amazon website, Udit Madan, the company’s main vice-president for global operations, wrote that delivery stations employ an average of 170 people.
Amazon will be the most recent occupant of the Decker Development Park which is along First Avenue South between Fort Frenzy and 42nd Street. Midamerican energy was the first occupant. Moeller Furnace & Air and Force America are building new installations there.
Bemrich said that the decision to extend First Avenue South and create the Decker development park with Decker Investments Inc. “really bears the fruit we knew.”
The streets and other development infrastructures were completed in 2016. The Midamerican Energy Service Center opened in early 2019.
