Amazon to open robotic sortation facility in Pasco County, create hundreds of jobs
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 20, 2022

E-commerce giant Amazon.com plans to bring one of its most sophisticated facilities to Pasco County.

Seattle-based Amazon plans to build a 500,000-square-foot robotic sortation center off of State Road 52 that will create 500 jobs. The deal was announced Thursday at the Pasco County Economic Development Council's economic forecast luncheon in Wesley Chapel.

"It is a great day in Pasco," Bill Cronin, president and CEO of the Pasco EDC, told the audience.

An official announcement, he said, would be issued Tuesday at the Pasco County Commissioners meeting.

Cronin said the deal is a result of the county's Ready Sites program, which was funded via the Penny for Pasco sales tax. The Ready Sites program preps large tracts of land for development, allowing companies to move quickly to construction once they've identified a site within the program.

"The plan is working," Cronin said of the Ready Sites program.

In 2021, Amazon announced it would open a robotics center in Tallahassee. Robotics facilities are much more expensive projects to build than typical distribution centers, though Cronin did not disclose a total capital investment.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has been rapidly growing its logistics footprint throughout the Sunshine State and particularly in Tampa Bay, where it leases a $100 million-plus air cargo facility at Lakeland Ledger International Airport.