Amazon's Promises to Michigan Ring HollowAs Facilities Sit Vacant

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce boomed, sales flourished, and Amazon massively expanded its warehouse footprint to reach all over the country. With every new facility, Amazon sold local officials and communities on promises of new jobs and rapid economic growth—and the state of Michigan was no different.

However, within the past year, Amazon has been rethinking this massive warehouse expansion. In all corners of the country, the company’s construction plans for new facilities are either being delayed or outright canceled—and once again, the state of Michigan is no different.

As instances of warehouse delays and closures snowball and Amazon’s promises to communities go unfulfilled, Michigan’s leaders must be cautious before giving Amazon the green light to further edge its way into the state.

Most recently, an Amazon fulfillment center in Detroit, originally scheduled scheduled to open this past summer, has now delayed its operations, including hiring for warehouse jobs. In fact, the facility is not even scheduled to open in 2022 at all anymore. Currently, the 3.8 million-square-foot fulfillment center sits empty —just like Amazon’s empty promises of over 1,200 local jobs and millions of dollars in economic impact for the city.

The Detroit-area warehouse isn’t the only one being mothballed in Michigan. A facility outside of Ann Arbor has been delayed with no set timeline for completion other than"in the coming years” according to an Amazon spokesperson. The first mid-Michigan fulfillment center in Delta Township, a 1 million-square-foot building that was originally set to open in spring 2022, is now delayed until 2024, and plans for an Ypsilanti-area warehouse were also recently canceled, totaling up to at least five facilities postponed or abandoned in Michigan within the past year. Now, vacant, monolithic structures dot Michigan’s normally picturesque landscape, creating eyesores for anyone that comes across them.

If and when Amazon follows through on opening these facilities, we must remind ourselves that these delays and cancellations aren’t the first time the tech behemoth has wronged Michiganders. In April 2020, warehouse workers near Detroitstaged walkouts to protest the company’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that year, Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Debbie Dingell paid a surprise visit to a warehouse in Romulus, prompting the tech company to call the police on members of Congress. Only after about an hour of arguing with the police wereTlaib and Dingell let in.

Often times, as we’ve seen in Michigan, Amazon comes for the taxpayer dollars of residents in the regions where they build new facilities. The mega corporation has been awarded lucrative tax breaks for warehouse projects all over the country. In Michigan, Amazon has received upwards of $82 million of subsidies for their warehouses since 2017 — money that comes straight out of Michiganders’ wallets.

Leaders in Michigan should think twice when it comes to allowing Amazon to expand its presence here and fleece taxpayers. The tech company has already reneged on far too many promises of economic growth and jobs. In a time of economic uncertainty and a looming recession hanging over our shoulders, empty promises from a tech giant like Amazon do nothing to help our state.

The last thing our state needs is for Amazon to come in and promise new jobs and economic growth, just for them to be taken away with the snap of a finger. For the sake of hardworking Michigan families, leaders must err on the side of caution next time Amazon comes back knocking on our door.