Amazon's third Visalia distribution hub, code-named OGS9, sits at 4001 N. Plaza Drive in CapRock Partners' Central Point industrial park. The 1.2 million-square-foot facility began operations Sunday, Aug. 17, and is expected to employ more than 600 workers. Amazon logo/Google Street View image

Amazon confirmed this week that its third Visalia distribution hub launched Sunday and has begun operations, with hiring still underway.

The facility, code-named OGS9, is built for same-day service with an emphasis on speedy delivery. It sits at 4001 N. Plaza Drive in Visalia.

The 75-acre site is a Sub-Same-Day Distribution Center — a high-capacity regional hub that receives product directly from vendors and feeds smaller fulfillment centers closer to the customer. It handles about 80% of inbound volume for those local sites.

Hundreds of jobs

“Visalia is uniquely positioned in the Central Valley to help us reach more customers faster,” said Kathy Duong, public policy manager at Amazon. “This 75-acre site acts as a regional hub — it feeds our local delivery stations so we can offer a wider selection of products eligible for same-day and next-day delivery across the area. We’re proud that it also means more than 600 job opportunities in this community with comprehensive benefits such as healthcare, dental, vision, and tuition-free education through our Career Choice program.”

The building spans 1.2 million square feet with multi-level material handling equipment and high-density racking designed for speed and storage optimization. It is Amazon’s third logistics site in the Visalia area, with operations starting Sunday, Aug. 16.

Amazon says employee benefits begin on day one, including healthcare, dental and vision coverage, plus Career Choice, which prepays tuition for degrees and certifications in high-demand fields. The company says new roles are posted weekly at amazon.com/jobs.

CapRock Partners’ draw

Like the other two Amazon centers in town, Newport Beach-based developer CapRock Partners facilitated Amazon’s entry into Visalia. One of the first major movers in the Visalia industrial real estate market, CapRock built and leased the first two warehouses in 2021 at its industrial park north of Riggin Avenue, called Central Point.

CapRock also sold 88 acres of land adjacent to Central Point to UPS for the development of one of the logistics company’s largest facilities in the Western U.S. The 450,000-square-foot UPS complex is a masterplan anchor and an attractive amenity for Central Point tenants.

The current building, Central Point III, broke ground in August 2023. It sat empty after construction was completed in 2024 until Amazon committed to the space, built just west of Plaza Drive and north of Riggin Avenue. As usual, Amazon stayed quiet on its plans until this week.

In January, Amazon filed a site plan with the city announcing its intentions and project details, including that the complex would employ 471 workers. That figure has now been increased to 600 per the company’s announcement this week. The new building has associate parking for 731 cars, with room to park truck trailers in 524 spaces.

Green hydrogen

Amazon uses green hydrogen — produced by electrolyzers from water and renewable electricity — primarily to power fuel-cell forklifts in its fulfillment centers, with plans to expand to heavy-duty trucks and a goal of net-zero carbon by 2040 through partnerships with companies such as Plug Power.

Visalia location critical

Roughly 230 miles north of Los Angeles and 230 miles south of San Francisco, Visalia plays a central role in California’s industrial warehouse market and the broader U.S. logistics supply chain. It offers abundant land at relatively lower real estate costs than nearby larger metropolitan areas and a robust supply of educated workers, drawing companies such as UPS, Amazon, Ace Hardware, Smucker’s, VF Corp., FedEx and International Paper, which have established logistics facilities in the area. Located near Highway 99 with access to Interstate 5 and Interstate 80, the site provides one-day ground shipping access to more than 50 million consumers, according to CapRock.

More to come

Also west of Plaza Drive, CapRock plans to build several more buildings nearby to complete Central Point’s 5-million-square-foot masterplan. This building is the first of four planned structures totaling 2.7 million square feet at CapRock Central Point III, the developer says.

Carvana, the used-car giant, told The Business Journal it would file for permits for a 700-job inspection center on 100 acres on Kelsey across from Amazon, with the submission coming later this month.