New Amazon sorting facility to open Monday

There’s a new facility, what Amazon calls a sortation center, opens on Monday in Lee County.

Eventually, you can expect to see more Amazon trucks on the road as the center ramps up operations. Allen Demler lives near the facility, and says, “It’ll probably make it a little worse, but the area is expanding. It’s just going to get bigger and bigger.”

The new sortation center is located north of Alico Road between Domestic Avenue and Lee Road.

Those who live near the Alico Road corridor west of I-75 hope that Amazon plans their deliveries accordingly.

John Wilcox says that heavy traffic is already there. “Traffic is bad, to begin with. Hopefully, the distribution center pays attention to peak times and avoids those. Doesn’t send, you know, a bunch of trucks out at the same time and is respectful to the citizens around here,” said Wilcox.

Allen Demler has lived in Fort Myers for his entire life. So, he knows traffic will build as the community continues to grow. “The traffic is only going to get worse and worse, and if you want to live here, that’s something you’re going to have to deal with,” said Demler.

While driving near the facility location could potentially be slow, people hope this facility will save time on package delivery.

Packages come into Southwest Florida either by air or ground to the sortation facility, which then sorts packages by zip code before they head out for last-mile delivery, such as with the U.S. Postal Service. Then, those packages arrive at your doorstep.

The opening of those packages comes during the holidays. “It’ll help definitely with the holiday season having stuff here locally in stock so that people can get their gifts out for Christmas in time rather than behind the holiday,” said Demler.

This new facility brings 200 jobs to Lee County. Amazon has more plans for Southwest Florida as well. A distribution center is being built right next door to the sorting facility and is set to open next year. Another facility is under construction in Collier County.

For information on open positions with Amazon in Fort Myers click here.