A ray of good news sneaked into the city unannounced this
month: Online giant Amazon finished construction of a distribution center
here, complete with many of the promised 1,000 jobs.
And it happened two weeks ahead of schedule.
Mayor Pat Morris heralded the opening as a step toward recovery for a
city whose Aug. 1 bankruptcy filing he said was largely based on a lack of
sales tax revenue and jobs, along with "bad decisions."
"We are ecstatic about the fact that they're employing -- right now
they're ramping up to employ for the season probably 1,500 people," Morris
said. "They've already got hundreds on board, and many more to come."
Amazon will announce the number of jobs at a news conference Thursday,
said Laurie Duffy of Taylor Strategy, speaking on behalf of Amazon. Company
spokeswomen said they would comment at the conference, timed for the day after
the first package is shipped today.
Amazon announced its holiday hiring rate for the first time Monday.
Nationwide, it plans to hire more than 50,000 seasonal workers at so-called
fulfillment centers like the one in San Bernardino, compared to 69,000 full-
and part-time employees worldwide and 20,000 full-time employees at U.S.
fulfillment centers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company calls facilities like the 950,000-square-foot one it built at
the corner of Tippecanoe and Central avenues, at the site of the former Norton
Air Force Base,
fulfillment centers. Such facilities handle shipments of Amazon products
bought online.
California law allows Amazon to designate which city is a "point of sale"
for the purposes of sales tax, with the point of sale -- San Bernardino --
receiving one cent on the dollar for all sales processed through the
fulfillment center.
That gives Amazon leverage to demand that some of the sales tax revenue
be "shared" with the company, but city and company officials have consistently
said that no such agreement was requested.
Work finished Oct. 1, an impressively quick construction pace, said city
planner Tony Stewart.
"The building didn't start construction until April, so the fact that
they're done so fast shows you how serious everyone is, especially with the
lack of staffing we have (at the city)," Stewart said, noting that unlike many
projects it was constructed exactly according to plan. "It's one of the better
jobs I've seen in my career."
Stewart said the city's planning division has been busy in recent months,
largely because of projects by Hillwood, the developer that brought in Amazon.
"We've got a lot of activity going on that I think a lot of cities would
be scrambling for," he said.
Councilwoman Virginia Marquez, whose ward includes the center, said she
was excited by the opening.
"There's a lot of good going on in the city now, and Amazon is one of
those things," she said. "I think this is great for the city."
