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Salt Lake City weighs in on economic opportunities through Amazon center


Rendering of Amazon Distribution Center in El Paso, Texas (Credit; City of El Paso)
Rendering of Amazon Distribution Center in El Paso, Texas (Credit; City of El Paso)
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A marketing research manager with Salt Lake City’s Economic Development says a facility such as Amazon will have a huge impact on the community’s economy.

In 2018, Amazon opened an 855,000 square foot facility in Salt Lake City and announced about a year later that it would expand in the state, adding to the jobs it had already created.

“Primarily here in Salt Lake, we point back to the 3,000 jobs that the process facility created,” Andrew Wittenberg, Salt Lake City Economic Development marketing research manager said.

“It has a significant impact, about $180 million in salary a year in Salt Lake City that goes to those 3,000 employees and certainly for people in your community, they can anticipate seeing that,” said Wittenberg.

Utah’s governor’s office said the tax revenue was estimated to be about $12.5 million in 2019 and the capital investment was $25.3 million over a timeline of 10 years for the expansion of Amazon.

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said incentives have not been discussed despite construction already underway.

“We haven’t discussed actual incentives. They’re very generous and a collaborative-type organization,” Samaniego said.

Samaniego says instead, the county discussed with Amazon how the county can help with infrastructure.

“For example, the difference between having asphalt, between having concrete would help because then we would have less maintenance in the infrastructure around the company,” Samaniego said.

Amazon will be built in the county area and will be smaller than Salt Lake City’s at 625 thousand square feet.

700 jobs are expected to open once the facility begins to operate in 2021.

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