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Tuesday, July 23, 2019
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Amazon plans 1,500 Akron jobs What’s in it for you? $15-an-hour jobs. Same-day shipping. What Amazon's Akron center could mean By Amanda Garrett Beacon Journal/Ohio.com
Work has started at the former Rolling Acres Mall site in anticipation of the arrival of Amazon. [PHIL MASTURZO/BEACON JOURNAL/OHIO.COM]
Old Rolling Acres Mall site to house fulfillment center for online giant be the seventh and eighth shipping hubs Amazon will operate in Ohio as the trendsetter in convenience shopping continues to dominate online retail sales in America. “One of our primary factors that go into our thought process on where to place a new fulfillment center is location,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “We’re responding to customer demand and want to make sure our fulfillment centers
By Doug Livingston Beacon Journal/Ohio.com
The worst-kept secret in economic development is out: Amazon is building in Akron. In a statement issued Monday morning, the e-commerce giant finally laid claim to the fulfillment center planned at the former Rolling Acres Mall site on the southwestern edge of town. This and a second distribution warehouse in Rossford, near Toledo, which also was announced Monday, will
Desirae Rogers, a “picker,” places items in boxes at an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Etna Township, Ohio, in 2017. [BROOKE
LAVALLEY/THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH FILE PHOTO]
See AMAZON, A6
What’s in it for Amazon? Ohio fulfills online giant with tax credits for new fulfillment facilities By Jim Mackinnon Beacon Journal/Ohio.com
State officials aren't yet willing to divulge the job creation tax incentives they're giving Amazon to build a massive new fulfillment center in Akron and another near Toledo. But in the past three years, Ohio has delivered more than $15.8 million in
tax credits to lure the online retail giant to communities across the state, according to state figures. Amazon says its nearly 2.7 million-square-foot, fourstory fulfillment center on the grounds of the former Rolling Acres Mall will create about 1,500 jobs. The southwest Akron facility could be open in late 2020. The Akron and Rossford fulfillment centers will be the seventh and eighth such See FOR THEM, A7
Amazon — the trailblazing online retailer on a building binge — confirmed Monday that it’s sinking roots into Akron, planning to open its third fulfillment center in Northeast Ohio on the site of the former Rolling Acres Mall. In many ways, the warehouse is the next generation shopping mall — a massive retail site where nearly everyone shops, but no one but workers visit. It promises more than 1,500 new jobs, some stabilization to the Akron’s income tax base and an end to the era of so-called “ruin porn” documenting the decay of the once prosperous double-decker shopping mall that drew people to the region. For Akron-area consumers, a new local warehouse might mean one-day, or even onehour, home delivery of books, bath towels, bolts, basketballs or any of the millions of products Amazon regularly stocks, observers say. For workers, Amazon brings jobs, both for the company inside the warehouse and for contractors who will deliver Amazon’s goods to people’s homes. Ohio’s minimum wage is $8.55 per hour. Amazon last year set its own minimum wage for its employees at $15 per hour. That equates to a $6.45 per-hour pay boost — or 43 percent — between Ohio’s lowest-paid workers and Amazon’s minimum earners. Amazon contractors — including those that deliver many of its packages — are not included in the minimum pay rate and must figure out how much they can earn once they pay for fuel, wear on their vehicles and the See FOR YOU, A7
Workers redo a stretch of Romig Road in front of the old Rolling Acres Mall in Akron in anticipation of the arrival of Amazon. [PHIL MASTURZO/BEACON JOURNAL/OHIO.COM]
Ohio poised to pass nuclear plant bailout FirstEnergy Solutions rescue bill has needed votes, speaker says By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch GateHouse Media Ohio
COLUMBUS — Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder says he has pieced together the votes needed Tuesday to pass House Bill 6, providing FirstEnergy Solutions with
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$150 million a year to rescue its pair of nuclear power plants on the shore of Lake Erie. Asked Monday morning if the votes to pass the bill by concurring with Senate changes had been compiled, Householder responded: “Should be OK.” While the Senate voted 19-12 on Wednesday to pass the controversial measure, a vote was not taken in the House because four known
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US budget deal President Trump and congressional leaders forge a critical debt and budget agreement. A8
“yes” votes were not present for the session. Householder, R-Glenford, pointed out Monday that he had 49 of the 50 needed votes last week, but the return of Republican lawmakers absent
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for the vote should send it to passage Tuesday. The House suddenly scheduled a Tuesday session on Sunday afternoon after originally not planning to return to the Statehouse until Aug. 1. Akron-based FirstEnergy Solutions has maintained it must have the money as soon as possible to avoid the shutdown of its pair of Ohio nuclear power plants. Saying the nuclear plants
are the leading source of carbon-free electricity in Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has pressed the House to pass the bill, which he said he would sign as passed by the Senate. “I don’t believe a few more days [in passing a bill] will make that big a difference” for FirstEnergy Solutions, DeWine said late last week. See BAILOUT, A8
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