Ohio: Getting to the Heart of Economic Development

On July 22nd, Amazon.com Inc. announced its plans to open two additional fulfillment centers in Ohio, creating 2,500 full-time, well-paying jobs for Ohio’s workers and demonstrating again that our state has become a prime choice for a wide range of businesses across nearly every industry looking for a home.

Why? Because in addition to its prime location, Ohio holds a unique set of assets that help it stand alone in this country as a place to do business. From logistics and infrastructure to financial services, research and development to education, all told, these assets are virtually unmatched by any other state.

Perhaps Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of Global Customer Fulfillment captures it best in Amazon’s recent press release: “Ohio has been a great place to do business, serve customers and create jobs; as a result, we are thrilled to develop two state-of-the-art fulfillment centers in Akron and Rossford.” The two 700,000 square foot centers represent a combined $300 million capital investment and bring the company’s total investment in the state to $5 billion.

While bringing companies such as Amazon here, JobsOhio understands the importance of working collaboratively with a wide range of organizations and cities to put Ohio’s best opportunities forward. In this case, we worked with Team NEO (our partner in Northeast Ohio), the Regional Growth Partnership, cities and administrations in Akron and Rossford, Seefried Industrial Properties, Duke Realty, the Development Finance Authority of Summit County and the Wood County Port Authority, each bringing something powerful and unique to the table.

This collaboration and cooperation deliver a huge benefit to Ohioans directly as well. Amazon has created more than 8,500 full-time, well-paying jobs in the state that include comprehensive benefits, parental leave, upskilling training and a host of other innovative benefits.

We look forward to bringing more projects like this to the state. To learn more about how you can benefit from Ohio’s rapidly evolving logistics and distribution industry, get in touch with JobsOhio.