VIRGINIA BEACH — Amazon recently opened a second massive facility where an army of robots fetch customers’ orders before handing them off to employees.
The new Virginia Beach fulfillment center at 1795 Dam Neck Road began its initial operations about four weeks ago.
“When a customer hits ‘Buy Now,’ the journey of their package begins at a fulfillment center just like the one in Virginia Beach,” Amazon spokesperson Sam Fisher said in an email.
Amazon has hired roughly 700 employees to work in the new 650,000 square foot building and plans to hire more people, Fisher said. The jobs range from robot technicians to inventory pickers and box packagers. The starting salary is $19 per hour.
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The fulfillment center is more than three times as big as a new Amazon delivery center down the street where a ribbon-cutting was held earlier this year. The 200,000-square foot delivery center at 2201 Harpers Road contracts with six local delivery companies, which employ 400 people. An additional 200 people work at the center, which has more than 100 electric delivery vans.
At the fulfillment center, employees work alongside a host of robots that store and retrieve merchandise.
“Inventory is transported directly to employees at a workstation ergonomically situated for their power zone (between mid-thigh and mid-chest height), mitigating the need for employees to reach above their heads or squat down, which can lead to common workplace injuries,” a company news release said.
One robotic system uses artificial intelligence, robotics and computer vision systems to consolidate inventory and free up storage at the site. Another finds and brings pods of merchandise to employees who pick out specific items for customer orders before they are packaged.
Amazon has deployed more than 1 million robots that sort, lift and carry packages across its operations network since 2012.
The company opened its most advanced fulfillment center last year in Shreveport, Louisiana. The site uses eight different robotics systems that support packaging and delivery. That facility was a template for the massive warehouse that just opened in Virginia Beach, according to a recent New York Times article about Amazon automating its operations.
This week, the company announced a reduction of 14,000 corporate jobs across the country. The spokesman would not say how many jobs were cut in Virginia. Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of approximately 1.56 million. The cuts come as the online giant anticipates an increasing usage of AI will reduce its workforce size.
In 2023, Virginia Beach agreed to pay $22.5 million for construction of a two-lane road and infrastructure improvements between Dam Neck and London Bridge roads for the two Amazon facilities. The properties are expected to generate an estimated $2.2 million in annual real estate tax revenue, according to the city budget director.
Amazon has been growing its presence in Hampton Roads in recent years. The company opened a Suffolk fulfillment center in 2022. That building features almost 13 miles of conveyor belts, and is the second largest building in Virginia behind the Pentagon.
Last year, Amazon opened a same-day delivery center in Hampton — the first of its kind in Hampton Roads and the second in Virginia. The 300,000-square-foot building makes same-day deliveries available to Hampton, Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/11/03/new-massive-amazon-robotics-center-opens-in-virginia-beach/
