FedEx building new distribution center, planning to open in 2017

A large distribution center in the I-75 Business Park in south Bibb County would replace a smaller facility built about 10 years ago.

Although it has been under construction for months, FedEx officials agreed Tuesday to disclose some information about the new facility.

FedEx Ground is building a 248,000-square-foot distribution center on Frank Amerson Jr. Parkway, according to an email from Allie Addoms, with the company’s public relations department at its headquarters near Pittsburgh. It is expected to be fully operational in July 2017.

“The new facility will replace an existing, smaller facility in Macon, enabling us to continue to meet and exceed customer demands in the area,” Addoms said. “Exact staffing needs have yet to be determined, but the facility will employ a mix of full- and part-time employees. We will add to the workforce as necessary to support increased demand for service in the area.”

While the number of workers it will employ is unknown, when another distribution center similar in size was being built in Spartanburg, South Carolina, it was expected to employ 22 full-time and 219 part-time jobs, according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Another center outside Austin, Texas, was projected to employ about 135 full-time employees and 35 part-time workers.

The new Macon facility, near Interstate 75 and Hartley Bridge Road, would replace the current Macon distribution center on about 11 acres at 244 Mercer Junction, Addoms said. That facility is about 60,000 square feet, according to the Macon-Bibb County Board of Tax Assessors’ website. It is listed for sale at $32.7 million.

The I-75 site was chosen because it was close to major highways, the proximity to customers’ distribution centers and “a strong local community workforce for recruiting employees,” she said.

The new facility is part of a nationwide expansion to increase daily package volume capacity and improve the speed and service of the FedEx Ground network, she said. This increase has improved the speed of delivery by one day in much of the country.

“Since 2005, the company has opened 12 new hubs featuring advanced material-handling systems and expanded or relocated more than 500 local facilities,” she said.

Cooper Construction Co., based in Birmingham, Alabama, is building the facility. On its website, it lists 17 facilities it has built for FedEx.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 6:38 PM with the headline "FedEx building new distribution center, planning to open in 2017."