Walking into Amazon’s 140,000-square-foot distribution center in North Versailles on Thursday was a bit of a “full-circle” moment for Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis.
“When I was growing up, we had the Eastland Mall here, which was a leader in its time,” said Davis, a native of nearby McKeesport. “It declined, but we’ve now seen Amazon rebuild this site.”
Upon the ashes of the old brick-and-mortar mall off Route 30 has risen Amazon’s eighth operations location in the Pittsburgh area and one of 18 delivery centers in the state.
The e-commerce behemoth, notoriously guarded about its operations, gave a behind-the-scenes look at the North Versailles site that quietly opened in August 2023. If you live in western Westmoreland County, good chances are your Amazon packages will come through this facility, officials said.
About 250,000 packages roll through the site weekly.
Amazon orders in Western Pennsylvania typically start life at one of the company’s locations west of Pittsburgh in Imperial, where there is a fulfillment center and robotic sorting facility.
Packages eventually make their way to North Versailles, where 200 employees sort them before loading them onto vans for about 300 drivers to deliver.
“This is the final step in the process,” said Amazon spokesman Sam Fisher of the delivery centers. “Nothing actually gets stored here.”
Drivers are largely employed by outside delivery service companies, according to Amazon State and Local Public Policy Manager Dave Vitali.
“These businesses spring up anytime we build a new facility,” Vitali said. “Some are small and operate just out of here. Others have a couple hundred drivers and operate out of multiple facilities.”
Amazon provides back-end logistics support and leases vans to the delivery service providers.
The company also has built a 1-million-square-foot warehouse in New Stanton. Although Fisher said Amazon is not yet ready to disclose details about the facility, site developer Matt Virgin with SunCap Property Group in Charlotte, N.C., has previously said it could create up to 600 jobs.
That warehouse is located south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and bounded by Westinghouse Drive and Glenn Fox Road. Other Amazon facilities have opened in Findlay, Ohio Township and Pittsburgh’s West End.
Monroeville native Chas Duboy is the North Versailles site manager. He started with the company as a part-time seasonal employee. He now has been employed full time with Amazon for the past eight years.
“I do not have a four-year college degree, and that has not stopped me from advancing in my career here,” Duboy said.
Nearly half of the building’s 200 employees were not working prior to starting at Amazon, Vitali said.
“Many were not in the labor force at all,” he said. “But they were able to interview, do the training and get started right away.”
Amazon also hosts a Career Choice program, offering more than $5,000 to employees seeking to further their education while working.
The company’s goal of regionalization has not just shortened delivery times but also empowered local small businesses, Vitali said.
“Pennsylvania has 13,000 small businesses which sell on Amazon.com,” he said. “Your neighbors are running sporting goods shops, art supply companies, businesses of all kinds, and those products are being delivered out of this building.”
The North Versailles location serves a roughly 35-square-mile area in Pittsburgh’s east suburbs.
“We want to try and replicate this type of success all over the commonwealth,” Davis said.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.