NORTH PEKIN, Ill. – The first packages are being delivered to Peoria-area homes from Amazon’s new fulfillment center in North Pekin.
The ribbon was cut Thursday morning on the facility — only employing 30 part-time employees and more than a dozen full-time managers at the moment.
It’s part of what is known as Amazon’s “RSR Network.”
“RSR is ‘Rural-Super Rural,’ so it’s a network for the more rural areas to help service the Prime customers to meet delivery commitments — that we get that three- to five-day delivery by putting these sits in to help drive that commitment,” said Rob Gruber, site leader.
It was supposed to be the first such facility in this part of Illinois to be complete, until COVID-19 got in the way, and another such facility in Champaign was complete first.
As for what Chris Deverman, Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce president thought when the project got delayed?
“Like every other business, hold on as long as you can,” said Deverman. “The Chamber did a great job — and I’m not speaking of just the Pekin Chamber, but all chambers in the area did great jobs of communicating with their businesses in the local area, and trying to keep the ball rolling, if you will.”
Nevertheless, Amazon expects to be entrenched in the community.
“Amazon and our RSR Network is heavily-community engagement driven,” said Gruber. “We’ve got different initiatives. We support not-for-profits in the area. We do volunteer things, try to engage in the community as much as possible.”
Some help has been brought in for the first few days from other facilities. Employees are starting to do safety and other training when they’re not handling packages.
As many as 200 mostly part-time employees will eventually work there as package handling ramps up.
Tours were not given of the facility — officials say — because some post-construction clean-up work still needs to be done.
