New Amazon fulfillment center launches in Charlton, could bring 1,000 jobs

A new Amazon fulfillment center in Charlton has officially launched, a spokesperson for the company announced on Thursday.

The fulfillment center, also known as ORH3, is a 2.8 million square foot facility located off Route 20 on Sturbridge Road.

The spokesperson said the center would seek to employ more than 1,000 people once operations have fully scaled up in 2025. The spokesperson added that the hires have been people from the area.

“The timing couldn’t be better, with ORH3 coming online just before we enter the busy holiday shopping season,” said the spokesperson. “We’re grateful for the support of policymakers in Charlton and at the Commonwealth that helped us reach today.”

Regarding possible traffic impacts the facility could have along Route 20, a spokesperson from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) told MassLive the agency has worked with Amazon and their consultants to find and mitigate traffic impacts.

The Amazon spokesperson said the company will continue to monitor Route 20 as operations continue to grow.

At fulfillment centers, employees pick, pack and ship items. The spokesperson explained that when a customer presses the “Buy Now” button on the Amazon app or website, the order starts at one of these facilities.

“Given Amazon’s regionalization strategy to stage products nearest the customers most likely to order them, Charlton as a ‘first-mile facility’ will primarily ship packages to delivery stations in proximity,” the spokesperson said.

One of these delivery stations in question is located in Worcester on the old site of the Greendale Mall.

Located on 7 Neponset St., the 121,000-square-foot facility was officially opened on Oct. 16, 2024

Upon receiving packages from nearby warehouses, such as the Charlton one, employees from the Worcester delivery center load them into trucks for delivery.