{"id":341458,"date":"2026-06-01T14:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341458\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T14:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:33:22","slug":"this-new-amazon-facility-will-be-fresnos-5th-how-many-jobs-has-company-brought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341458\/","title":{"rendered":"This new Amazon facility will be Fresno\u2019s 5th. How many jobs has company brought?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reality Check is a Fresno Bee series<\/a> holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email tips@fresnobee.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The massive industrial space under construction on Marks and Nielsen avenues that will host Fresno\u2019s fifth Amazon warehouse did not come without some controversy.<\/p>\n

It was approved by the City Council in 2024 under the promise of good jobs \u2014 and lots of them.<\/p>\n

Skeptics of the development, named the Scannell Westgate Industrial Center, warn that increasing automation will mean fewer jobs at Amazon\u2019s Fresno operations. That includes City Councilmember Miguel Arias, who says allowing additional warehouse space on the west side \u2014 the city\u2019s most polluted area and one in need of more retail and grocery options \u2014 was unnecessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather the Amazons of the world take an existing distribution center or an existing warehouse in this city and renovate that,\u201d said Arias, whose district includes the new warehouse site.<\/p>\n

But Amazon says its track record shows a huge investment in Fresno, and that it can use robotics and create plenty of jobs at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cFresno is a great place to live and work and we\u2019re proud to be growing our local footprint,\u201d Amazon spokesperson Austin Stowe said in a statement to The Fresno Bee.<\/p>\n

Stowe said the operation at Westgate will not be a fulfillment center, which is the company\u2019s largest type of warehouse. But it\u2019s not yet clear how many new jobs the new operation will create or how much of the 833,000 square feet of the industrial center\u2019s planned building space Amazon will use.<\/p>\n

The company will share more information about its future operation at Westgate as it becomes available, Stowe added.<\/p>\n

Developed by Indiana-based Scannel Properties, construction on Westgate began last summer. Scannell did not respond to The Fresno Bee\u2019s request for comment, but it appears the first of three buildings planned for the 48-acre site is nearing completion.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A giant warehouse is shown under construction on the northeast corner of Marks and Nielsen in west Fresno. The project, which was proposed more than five years ago, will result in three warehouse buildings totaling more than 800,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

What is Amazon\u2019s current footprint in Fresno?<\/p>\n

Stowe said Amazon has invested \u201cmore than $4 billion\u201d in Fresno County. The company currently has four operations in the area and more than 4,000 employees, he added.<\/p>\n

A cluster of Amazon buildings is located at the intersection of Central and Orange avenues on the city\u2019s southern edge, which is also in Arias\u2019 district. Among those is an 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center that opened in 2018<\/a>. Another 470,000-square-foot building was built there after a local developer reached an agreement in 2022<\/a> with south Fresno residents who were concerned about the area\u2019s growing number of warehouses.<\/p>\n

That same year, Amazon opened a \u201clast mile\u201d facility<\/a> on Olive and Clovis avenues in east Fresno. This smaller facility replaced a warehouse near Cedar and Church avenues.<\/p>\n

Will Oliver, CEO of the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation, said Amazon\u2019s arrival in Fresno caused existing employers to recalculate wages to compete with the online retail and distribution giant. According to Amazon<\/a>, its average base pay is now \u201cmore than\u201d $23 per hour and total compensation, which includes benefits, is more than $30 per hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many residents, these jobs offer a steady paycheck, benefits from day one and a path to advancement without requiring a four-year degree,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A giant warehouse is shown under construction on the northeast corner of Marks and Nielsen in west Fresno. The project, which was proposed more than five years ago, will result in three warehouse buildings totaling more than 800,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

Arias says west Fresno residents opposed warehouse, warns of automation<\/p>\n

Arias was one of two councilmembers who voted against the Westgate warehouse center in 2024. He told The Bee on Wednesday that west Fresno residents were opposed to the project \u2014 especially the African American community.<\/p>\n

West Fresno advocate Debbie Darden, who voted against the project as it passed through a city review committee, says the warehouse center served as another example of the city pushing through developments residents didn\u2019t ask for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get another grocery store to offset prices at the one major store we have here,\u201d she said, \u201cWe only have one.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and Arias are both concerned Amazon\u2019s Westgate operation will offer far fewer jobs than it could because of automation: maybe a few hundred instead of thousands. Arias said operations at Amazon\u2019s current Fresno facilities are already \u201cmostly automation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times has reviewed<\/a> internal Amazon documents and in October reported that executives are hoping robotics could help the company avoid adding 600,000 jobs while doubling sales by 2033.<\/p>\n

Amazon told The Bee that story\u2019s premise was \u201cwrong and ignores the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that we\u2019ve been rolling out robotics in our facilities since we acquired Kiva in 2012 and, at the same time, we\u2019ve created more direct and indirect jobs than any company in America \u2014 well over 2 million,\u201d Amazon\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

The company said it uses robotics at its Fresno facilities \u201cin a way that improves the experience for both customers and employees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reality Check is a Fresno Bee series holding those in power to account and shining a light on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[8487,140660,112,3879,622,114,113,140659,139427],"class_list":["post-341458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-amazon","tag-austin-stowe","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-bee","tag-fresno-county","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-fulfillment-center","tag-industrial-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}