The real estate purchase and the general plan for the site was confirmed by Scott Seroka, operations PR manager for the company.

The property is along First Avenue South near 42nd Street in the Decker Development Park.

Seroka was unable to provide a timeline for when the last mile delivery station will be built.

Local leaders welcomed news of the planned facility.

“I’m really excited to see the opportunity in the Decker Development Park,” Mayor Matt Bemrich said. “It’s great.”

Astra Ferris, chief executive officer of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance, described the Amazon announcement as another example of the good things that happen when there is collaboration between government and the private sector.

“There’s no better time than now for investment in our community,” she said. “With our workforce, it just makes sense for private investment.”

Seroka said a last mile delivery station is the “final touchpoint in Amazon’s logistical system.” It is the place where packages are sorted and loaded into vans for delivery to customers.

“The packages come in overnight while you’re sleeping, they’re unloaded, scanned, sorted, and placed with care into totes and carts,” he wrote in an email to The Messenger. “The packages are only in the facility for a few brief hours.”

He wrote that the Fort Dodge facility is “part of a greater investment to help us fill gaps in our delivery system network.”

He said he did not have any details on the size of the building or how many employees will work there.

In an article on the Amazon web site, Udit Madan, the company’s senior vice president for worldwide operations, wrote that delivery stations employ an average of 170 people.

Amazon will be the newest occupant of the Decker Development Park which is along First Avenue South between Fort Frenzy and 42nd Street. MidAmerican Energy was the first occupant. Moeller Furnace & Air and FORCE America are building new facilities there.

Bemrich said the decision to extend First Avenue South and create the Decker Development Park with Decker Investments Inc. is “really bearing the fruit that we knew it would.”

The streets and other infrastructure for the development park were completed in 2016. The MidAmerican Energy service center opened in early 2019.