Twinsburg is likely to get a distribution center, operated by online retail giant Amazon, that will be home to the equivalent of 150 full-time jobs.
Members of state’s Ohio Tax Credit Authority this week approved a Job Creation Tax Credit designed to help entice Amazon to open the distribution center in the northern Summit County community.
The state said Amazon wants to have the center operating by the end of 2019.
The new jobs would generate $4.1 million in annual payroll.
The value of the tax credit is an estimated $270,000, not a large amount compared with other tax credits OK’d by the authority, part of the state’s Department of Development Services Agency.
The tax credit will be paid over a six-year period. Amazon must maintain the facility for nine years.
Twinsburg’s City Council earlier approved a project involving possibly 300 part-time jobs and 10 full-time jobs for an undisclosed tenant in the Cornerstone Business Park, which is at the former Chrysler Stamping Plant, at 2000 Aurora Road.
The distribution center/packing warehouse — which Amazon calls a fulfillment center — is smaller than those planned for central Ohio.
Amazon’s “fulfillment center” — which some people call packing warehouses — are where products ordered by customers are picked and packaged.
Last year, Amazon said it was planning fulfillment operations that would employ 2,000 workers in Etna, in Licking County, and Obetz, in Franklin County.
Amazon, headquartered in Seattle, reportedly has not commented on the Twinsburg project. But it is believed that the project approved by the state Tax Credit Authority and the Twinsburg City Council are one and the same.
Once companies are approved for state tax credit, they must prove, through reporting to the state’s Development Services Agency, that they have created the minimum number of jobs outlined in agreements covering the credits.
Ohio Job Creation Tax Credits are measured as a percentage of the state income tax withholdings for all new employees hired under the tax credit program.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/KatieByardABJ.