WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Amazon broke ground on Wilmington’s first robotics fulfillment center Wednesday.

The facility spans over eleven football fields in size, about 650,000 square feet, making this Amazon’s largest facility in the country.

A fulfillment center is the first step in an Amazon package’s journey.

In the fulfillment center, employees pick, pack, and ship smaller customer orders such as books, toys, and small household goods.

Employees will also work alongside state-of-the-art robotics, including AI robots, that help pack these orders and create the boxes.

Amazon officials are proud of their choice picking Wilmington as its newest hub.

“The sense of community right here in Wilmington, we like to locate in places where we know our employees will thrive and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll be able to hire the best and the brightest from right here in Wilmington because of the sense of community and the talent right here,” said Amazon Vice President of Worldwide Economic Development Holly Sullivan.

With this newest addition to the community, they’re guaranteed to bring over 1,000 jobs to local employees.

This is something officials say everyone can get on board with.

“We have to bring jobs to our community to make sure our residents are able to work here and stay here,” said City of Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo.

Amazon has created more than 27,000 full and part-time jobs in North Carolina.

Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $12 billion in North Carolina through infrastructure investments and compensation to Amazon employees, and officials say this new investment in the fulfillment center will continue to boost the local economy.

This will impact more than just Wilmington though.

“It’s a celebratory day for Pender County, a great day for Pender County citizens,” said Pender County Commission Chairman, Randy Burton.

With big businesses like Amazon here, Burton says it creates job opportunities for people to work locally instead of commuting to other areas.

Even better for the state, Amazon says 60% of products sold are from small and medium businesses with 11,000 from North Carolina.

Putting a value on small mom-and-pop shops here further strengthens the facility’s benefit to the community.

“This is a huge economic development initiative for our community for our region and I think one of the largest in our community’s history,” said Mayor Saffo.

The facility is expected to be open late next year, in time for the holidays.

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