Amazon is extending its footprint into Southern Delaware.
This latest Amazon fulfillment center planned in Seaford will be its first in southern Delaware.
Seaford Mayor David Genshaw says he’s been working with the developer of the old DuPont warehouse for a while.
He says this will help bring people back to Southern Delaware.
“I think that’s one of the biggest complaints we have heard is people have children, they go away to college and they need to find jobs in other places besides here because they can’t find that career path they’re looking for or a job that would pay wages that would allow them to purchase a home, send their kids to college or whatever their desires are,” said Genshaw.
Genshaw expects this will usher a period of growth for the city, He believes Amazon’s arrival should bring other businesses and services to the city, like DuPont did when it opened the world's first nylon plant there in 1939.
“To me this is a great thing that will again hopefully be just the beginning of attracting additional great paying jobs and businesses to Seaford," he said.
Despite limited information from Amazon, Genshaw says this new warehouse could create hundreds of jobs for the city.
Amazon’s first distribution center opened in 1997 near New Castle, followed by its now largest center in Middletown in 2012. The company currently has about 2,500 employees in the First State.
The company also announced a new fulfillment center at the old GM Boxwood plant in Wilmington last year, and plans to open that facility in time for the 2021 holiday shopping season. It is expected to bring around 1,000 jobs.
Genshaw says he hopes the renovations of the old Seaford warehouse progress quickly to get the facility open soon.
Roman Battaglia a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
