Amazon opens Virginia Beach fulfillment center

Amazon has opened its massive 3.2 million-square-foot, highly automated fulfillment center in Virginia Beach, hiring hundreds of workers to process customer orders alongside robots.

The Amazon fulfillment center at 1795 Dam Neck Road opened at the end of September, according to spokesperson Sam Fisher. More than 700 people have been hired for the new facility, with plans to hire an unspecified number of additional workers. Starting salaries begin at $19 per hour.

The five-floor fulfillment center, which has a 650,000-square-foot footprint, marks the second and final phase of a $350 million expansion in Virginia Beach that included a 219,000-square-foot delivery station, which opened last year at 2201 Harpers Road.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin first announced that Amazon.com would launch a fulfillment center and delivery station in Virginia Beach in September 2023, projecting the two facilities combined would create 1,000 full-time jobs.

At the new fulfillment site, robots transport items for storage and pick and pack orders for shipment, working alongside human Amazon staff.

Newly hired positions include robotic technicians as well as people who pull ordered items, those who package items for shipment and inventory stockers.

A grand opening celebration will be held for the site in a few months.

Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $161.3 billion in Virginia, including infrastructure and compensation to employees, creating more than 43,000 full and part-time jobs. The company states that its investments also have supported an additional 117,500 jobs indirectly statewide in fields such as construction and professional services.