Amazon opens Louisiana’s first same-day delivery site in Elmwood near New Orleans

Amazon opened its doors Monday to its first same-day delivery site in Louisiana, located on Mounes Street near Dickory Avenue in Elmwood.

The new 150,000-square-foot facility will allow the retail giant to fulfill, sort and deliver thousands of same-day orders in the greater New Orleans area using advanced robotics and over 80 employees and counting, the company said. 

The new site is one in a larger venture to double the number of same-day delivery sites nationwide, which now includes over 140 U.S. locations.

“We’re proud to create quality jobs while bringing a new level of convenience to New Orleans residents, and we look forward to growing alongside this incredible city,” site leader Stephen Grant said in a statement.

The facility, estimated last year to cost $30 million, plans to use several hundred drivers per day, each transporting up to 50 packages. The company agreed last year to stagger its peak hours between 1-3 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. to minimize traffic impact, with no more than 60 drivers working at one time.

The company is still hiring new workers at the Elmwood location to distribute more than 38,000 items sold through the facility.

Amazon purchased the property outside of Harahan in 2021, originally to serve as an offsite parking lot to its pre-existing local operations before pivoting to the new same-day delivery site, representatives told the Jefferson Parish Council in a zoning hearing last year.

“Amazon’s continued investment, expansion, and job creation in Jefferson Parish is a true testament to the success of their existing facility and their vision for the future of the area,” Jerry Bologna, executive director for the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission, said in a statement.

The new Amazon site comes weeks after the company opened another $40 million delivery center on the northshore in Slidell, which fulfills next day and two-day deliveries.

Across Louisiana, Amazon has four fulfillment and sortation centers, six delivery station locations, seven Whole Food markets and two solar farms, according to regional spokesperson Daniel Martin.

Since 2010, the company has invested over over $3 billion and created over 6,000 jobs in Louisiana, according to Martin.