09.28.11

Hoeven Dedicates Amazon's Expansion Facility

GRAND FORKS, N.D. –Senator John Hoeven, along with company, state and local officials, today dedicated a 30,000-square-foot facility that will expand Amazon’s customer service operations in Grand Forks. At the ceremony, Hoeven attributed the company’s growth to North Dakota’s pro-business climate and thanked Amazon for its continued investment in the state. Amazon’s expansion is expected to create 200 full-time jobs, plus additional seasonal jobs. 

“For more than 10 years, Amazon has been an important part of this community, and we’re pleased that the company has decided that North Dakota is a good place to invest and grow,” Hoeven said. “It is companies like Amazon, and communities like Grand Forks that make them welcome, which are the key to bringing growth to our state and our region.” 

In 1999, Amazon opened its first 40,000-square-foot customer service center in Grand Forks with almost 400 people employed at the facility. The expansion space increases the company’s footprint in Grand Forks by 73 percent, and its workforce in the state by 50 percent. Amazon’s employees in Grand Forks offer customer service, answering calls and emails from around the world.  Following today’s ceremony, Hoeven joined Amazon officials and state and local representatives on a tour of the new expansion space. 

“Grand Forks and North Dakota will continue to attract investment from companies like Amazon because we’ve made job creation our first priority, and we need to do the same on the national level to grow our economy,” Hoeven continued.  

The senator has been working to create a pro-growth, pro-jobs business climate to get the nation’s economy back on track.  Hoeven is working to pass legislation that would provide regulatory certainty for America’s job creators, and to forge a legal, tax and regulatory climate that enables American business to thrive. 

Since 2000, North Dakota’s economy has created almost 50,000 net new jobs; increased average wages by more than $11,000; increased personal income by more than $17,000; grown the gross domestic product by 90 percent; and grown exports by 303 percent.