TUCSON, Ariz. - Now that Amazon'sannounced a big new warehouse that will bring 15 hundred permanent jobs to Tucson, local governments and businesses need to get busy to be ready to cope with that growth.
The Amazon fulfillment centers can be huge.
With more than 857 thousand square feet of floor space, the Tucson Center will have enough space to hold 370 average sized houses.
It will be on Kolb Between Valencia and I-10, an ideal location to get goods on the road in a hurry.
With work already underway on the site, local governments need to move fast too.
Amazon plans to have 15 hundred regular workers. They will add to demand for government services like police, fire and transportation.
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild says it'll help that Amazon and the business it will stimulate will bring in more tax money.
"And because of what Amazon's doing and what they can bring in we can bring in the extra police if we need them, the fire, whatever services are necessary."
Some of the new workers will be shopping for homes.
There was a lot of secrecy surrounding the Amazon project so landowners around it probably did not know it was coming. But here's a real jackpot moment for the developer who owns this site. A housing development going in almost walking distance from the Amazon location.
More people means more demand on the schools. The Amazon site is in the Vail School District, where superintendent Calvin Baker says Vail already needed more classroom space.
"This announcement confirms we do indeed need to move in that direction and probably need to move forward with a little bit more aggression than we thought before."
And Amazon will probably pump up Vail's retail boom and add jobs at other businesses as Amazon workers start spending their salaries.
Planning documents suggest the Amazon Center should open about the middle of next year
