Amazon invested over $5.5 billion from 2010-20 in the Austin metropolitan area, and the company plans to continue growing in the region with its fifth area delivery station opening in 2022.

On Aug. 9, Amazon announced company officials signed a lease for a 315,000-square-foot delivery station located at 10000 Decker Lane, Austin, just south of Hwy. 290. The company plans to complete construction in the first half of 2022, Operations Public Relations Manager Daniel Martin said. Amazon will hire over 200 full-time and part-time employees. Over 11,000 employees work for Amazon in the Austin area, Martin said.

Amazon has delivery stations in Pflugerville, Southeast Austin, Buda and Round Rock. When a customer buys a product from the company’s website, an employee pulls the product from a fulfillment center, Martin said. The item next goes to a sortation center and is sorted by ZIP code. The last step is to a delivery station, the last-mile stop before customer deliveries in the surrounding area. Amazon has a sortation center in Kyle, and a fulfillment center in Pflugerville opens in October.

While deciding whether to construct a fifth delivery station, Martin said the company examined an increase in customer demand, support from state and local leaders, and the existence of a talented local workforce.

“Does bringing a new facility to this community make sense not only for the customer but also the community and those who would be working there?” Martin said. “This facility checks all those boxes.

Amazon also released data Aug. 9 from its latest economic impact report that states the company hired more than 70,000 full-time and part-time employees statewide as of late 2020. Over 136,000 jobs were created statewide as a result of Amazon’s development, such as construction, transportation, retail, health care and food services jobs, according to a press release.

According to the economic report, Amazon invested $29 billion in the state, including through infrastructure work, employee compensation and the company's development, Martin said. These investments have added more than $34 billion to the Texas economy.

“Not only are we talking about Amazon employees, but if we have 70,000 employees in the state, well they have to eat lunch somewhere,” Martin said. “[We] have third-party line haul drivers, and delivery service partners, they have to hire staff, and in order to build facilities, you need all the [construction] and contracting work.”