New Amazon delivery center brings more employment opportunities to Elkhart

ELKHART, Ind. -- A new amazon delivery center opened Wednesday, Aug. 27 in Elkhart. This new center will provide faster delivery to the Michiana region along with new job opportunities for the area.

The new facility is almost 200,000 square feet and will bring in over 250 job positions adding to the over 20,000 full and part time employees at Amazon that live in Indiana.

Amazon has invested 25.5 billion dollars in Indiana's Amazon infrastructure and employee compensation.

The Mayor of Elkhart, Rod Roberson, says this opening will come with many benefits. “This is going to help our entire community in a very broad way that I don't think people have yet to see. So, it's not just about the jobs even though I’m excited about the jobs, it's about a whole wide range of what amazon can bring to the Elkhart community.”

The mayor also explains that Elkhart works to keep a fluid diverse economy. He says, "Elkhart looks for opportunities where we can diversify our economy. We are a diverse economy, but a lot of our businesses are relatively connected to the RV industry and the RV industry; when it struggles, Elkhart struggles.”

While Elkhart is not currently struggling for job opportunities, it has been determined that employment opportunities are headed to a possible decline for the Elkhart area.

The new facility comes at a perfect time for the county after a recent facility closure in the area. Roberson states, “this is wonderful in relationship to accelerating excitement around job opportunities in the area. This facility is a couple of hundred jobs, which is great because we lost a company, Elkhart products, about a week ago.”

According to the Mayor of Elkhart, the facility will also work to increase shorter delivery times and in some cases bring in some same day deliveries to the region.