For McKeesport native and Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, walking into Amazon’s 140,000-square-foot distribution center in North Versailles was a bit of a “full-circle” moment.
“When I was growing up, we had the Eastland Mall here, which was a leader in its time,” Davis said. “It declined, but we’ve now seen Amazon rebuild this site.”
Davis was joined by local legislators, North Versailles officials and Amazon employees at a ribbon-cutting for the facility, which was approved in late 2020 and quietly opened in August 2023. It is Amazon’s eighth operations site in the Pittsburgh area, and one of 18 delivery centers in the state.
“This is the final step in the process,” said Amazon spokesman Sam Fisher of the delivery centers. “Nothing actually gets stored here.”
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.
Those 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, who handle about 250,000 packages each week.
The company has also built a 1 million square-foot warehouse in New Stanton. While 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. The 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, and started with the company as a part-time seasonal employee. He’s now 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.
Vitali said nearly half of the building’s 200 employees were not working prior to starting at Amazon.
“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.
Vitali said the company’s goal of regionalization has not just shortened delivery times, but also empowered local small businesses.
“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.
Davis said it is a great local success story.
“We want to try and replicate this type of success all over the commonwealth,” he 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.