In A Flash

Amazon to build giant $100M facility in Carencro and create 500 jobs

By: Wesley Muller - December 22, 2020 10:10 pm

An artist’s rendering of the fulfillment center Amazon plans to build in Carencro, Louisiana. (Photo courtesy of Amazon PR/Business Wire).

Amazon plans to build a 1 million square-foot fulfillment center in Carencro next year, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Tuesday.

The facility, the first fulfillment center for Louisiana, will be located at a 12-acre site formerly home to an Evangeline Downs racetrack near the junction of Interstates 10 and 49 in Lafayette Parish. It will serve as a warehouse hub where employees will pick, pack and ship bulky or larger-sized items such as patio furniture, outdoor equipment and rugs.

An Amazon associate packages items at one of the company’s fulfillment centers. (Photo courtesy of Amazon).

The governor said the project amounts to a $100 million capital investment and will create 500 direct jobs on-site with an annual payroll of more than $16 million. In exchange, the state offered the online mega retailer a $3 million performance-based grant payable over two years.

“Amazon, thank you so much for choosing to invest in our state,” Edwards said during a public video conference Tuesday. “This really is exciting. This is going to be more than a treat for all the people in Lafayette and the Acadia region that will benefit from this.”

Amazon anticipates a completion of the fulfillment center in Carencro by the end of 2021. Hiring of new employees is expected to begin one to three months prior to the launch of operations, according to a Louisiana Economic Development press release.

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Wesley Muller

Wes Muller traces his journalism roots back to 1997 when, at age 13, he built and launched a hyper-local news website for his New Orleans neighborhood. In the years since then, he has freelanced for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and worked on staff at the Sun Herald in Biloxi, WAFB-9News CBS in Baton Rouge, and the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He also taught English as an adjunct instructor at Baton Rouge Community College. Much of his journalism has involved reporting on First Amendment issues and coverage of municipal and state government. He has received recognitions including McClatchy's National President's Award, the Associated Press Freedom of Information Award, and the Daniel M. Phillips Freedom of Information Award from the Mississippi Press Association, among others. Muller is a New Orleans native, a Jesuit High School alumnus, a University of New Orleans alumnus and a veteran U.S. Army paratrooper. He lives in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, with his two sons and his wife, who is also a journalist.