Target announced opening of 22-acre Tucson center
Published on Friday, May 04, 2007
Retailer Target selected Tucson over Phoenix and two California locations to build and open a massive, 22-acre, online fulfilment center.
The announcement was made May 3 by Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities (TREO).
Target is considering one of two possible sites along Interstate 10 southeast of Tucson on which it wants to build 975,000-square foot warehouse and distribution. It would be the company’s second such center, the other one is in Woodbury, Minn.
Plans call for the Tucson facility to be open in early 2009 and have 500 full-time employees, which could be bumped up by another 400 seasonal and part-time employees.
“Tucson is a vibrant community and has a skilled workforce, which makes it a great fit for us,” said Mitch Stover, Target’s senior vice president for distribution services.
The new center is intended to keep pace with the Target’s growing Web-based retail business, which is exceeding capacity at its existing fulfillment center in Woodbury, Minn.
Joe Snell, TREO’s chief executive officer, said “Target was interested in the fact that this region is in a good strategic location to access goods coming into Mexican ports instead of Long Beach.” Major retailers are all looking for an alternative to the southern California port “because Long Beach is at full capacity.”
Gov. Janet Napolitano and Mayor Bob Walkup both welcomed the announcement. Napolitano said the fulfillment center is “consistent with Tucson’s goal of diversifying the local economy to make available a balanced mix of jobs.”
Established in 1962 by Dayton Hudson Corp., Target is one of the largest retailers in the U.S. Operating 1,502 stores in 47 states, including 182 SuperTarget stores, the company reported $59.5 billion in sales for 2006 and forecasts more than $60 billion in revenue for 2007.
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