Amazon nears deal for Chicago distribution center in Pullman

Amazon has decided to bulk up a little more here, this time on city’s South Side.
 
According to Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, the giant internet retailer has an agreement  in principle to create a 40-acre distribution center in the Pullman section of his ward, roughly at 104th and Woodlawn.
 
The “wish fulfillment center,” as Amazon calls its warehouses, would occupy a 150,000-square-foot structure to be built on former Ryerson Steel property. About 500 construction jobs will be created, with “200 to 300” permanent positions after construction is completed by the end of the year, Beale said.
 
Pay figures are not available, but at a somewhat larger facility Amazon recently announced it will open on the site of the former Maywood Park horse track the firm indicated pay would begin at $15 an hour. The Pullman jobs will be located not far from some of the neediest and most job-short neighborhoods in the city.
 
“We could not be happier,” said Beale, reporting that the center will be located immediately north of Amazon’s existing Whole Foods distribution center. “It underscores that Pullman is rapidly becoming the new green industry/transit logistics and distribution center of Chicago,” with more than $350 million in private investment in recent years.
 
Beale pegged Amazon’s investment at $60 million. The company will seek a county property tax abatement that could slash its property tax by more than half for a decade, Beale said, but those are relatively routine for new industrial projects nowadays. The City Council would have to approve the break.
 
Amazon has been edging closer to closer to the city proper with new distribution facilities after initially focusing on Joliet, Aurora, Waukegan and other outlying suburbs, apparently hoping to get orders faster to city residents. The company does have one small warehouse on Goose Island on the North Side.