New Amazon facility in Baton Rouge is positively impacting neighboring businesses

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The new Amazon Fulfillment Center, located where the old Cortana Mall used to be, is now open. The Baton Rouge Area Chamber says they think this could bring life back to that area, but the benefits can be seen across the parish.

“The Baton Rouge Area Chamber is really good at bringing the right people to the right table and I think that’s what we did for this facility,” said Jake Polansky, Manager of Economic and Policy Research at Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC).

According to Polansky, this facility is a $200 million investment. It is already making an economic impact on the local area.

“We’re seeing new businesses pop up around the Amazon facility, new restaurants, new grocery stores, new service providers. That’s 1000 people going to this work site every day and they’re going to need someplace to eat lunch, they’re going to need someplace to shop for groceries after they get off of work,” added Polansky.

Employees at businesses like Raising Canes and Burger King, which are right across the street from the Amazon facility, said they are seeing a large increase in customers.

“With so many people going there every day, it’s really going to help those businesses which are going to create a domino effect of good activity in the region.”

Amazon has already filled around 500 full-time positions and plans to hire another 500 workers, with a starting pay of around $17.50 an hour.

“That doesn’t even include the nice benefits package that most of these employees are going to get, and that benefits package is going to include things like healthcare, childcare, 401(k) options. So there are a lot of new jobs, a lot of good jobs, coming to the area and that’s fantastic for our region,” explained Polansky.

You can find more information on those positions on the Amazon Jobs website.

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