Leaders in West Baton Rouge Parish say the planned development of an Amazon sorting facility in Port Allen will be a boon for the local economy and could bring as many as 300 jobs to the area.
Though the e-retail giant has not yet publicly announced its plans for the area, a real estate company that develops property for Amazon recently acquired a 63-acre site in Port Allen at the intersection of La. 415 and Court Street for $8.15 million, according to the West Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s Office.
Courthouse records also show that the real estate firm, GPF-Seefried Port Allen, subsequently leased the property to Amazon.
“Absolutely, this will be good for our area,” says West Baton Rouge Parish President Riley “Pee Wee” Berthelot. “We know it will bring several hundred jobs.”
Citing a confidentiality agreement, Berthelot says he is unable to divulge additional details about the project but says an official announcement could come as soon as next week.
The facility will be Amazon’s second major investment in the area in the past year. Earlier this year, Seefried acquired a 34-acre site on Industriplex near Siegen Lane and developed an Amazon last-mile fulfillment center, which recently opened.
Neither the planned west side facility nor the Industriplex center are as large as the regional distribution center Amazon had been trying to develop for more than a year on the site of the former Cortana Mall in north Baton Rouge. Those plans fell through in May, however, after Dillard’s, the lone holdout parcel at the 1 million-square-foot site and Amazon’s real estate company were unable to reach a deal.
Sources familiar with the situation say there’s still an outside chance the pieces of that deal could be put back together. In the meantime, the company is moving forward with the west side project, which is scheduled to be completed in mid-2021 and will be a welcome bright spot in the area, officials say.
“If you look at the site where they’re going to build, it’s huge,” says Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen. “It’s going to be a very substantial facility. It’s a great location, in close proximity to the state Capitol and is geographically very well situated.”
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