Amazon’s First Frontier Blair County operations are ramping up. Job seekers are encouraged to register with the Amazon hiring site now as they expand their service territory and outreach over the next several weeks. Hourly positions offer a starting rate of $16 per hour. Flexible scheduling is permitted and there is room to grow in all positions. Interested job seekers need to register at the Amazon job site. Once registered, you will receive notices of job openings and details on how to apply. Step one is to sign up. See the sign-up sites below:
To receive general job-sign up notices visit: amazon.com/exploreourjobs
For those with disabilities visit: amazon.com/pwdhourslyjob
Military veterans visit: amazon.com/militaryjobs
As appeared in the March 3, 2023 edition of the Altoona Mirror by Bill Kibler:
An Amazon “last mile” delivery station will soon be operating in part of the former General Cable building on Pleasant Valley Boulevard.
“It’s going to be creating jobs in the city,” said Altoona Mayor Matt Pacifico, “very exciting.”
The station could eventually employ about 200 to 300 workers, Altoona Blair County Development Corp. CEO Steve McKnight said, citing “initial projections.”
A delivery station that opened in Williamsport last year generated about 100 jobs after ramping up fully — not including third-party delivery jobs that Amazon creates by contracting with local firms, said Amazon spokesman Sam Fisher.
Amazon operates fulfillment centers, which are big warehouses; sorting centers, which send packages out for “middle mile” transport; and delivery centers, like the one it’s establishing in Altoona, which send packages onto their final destinations, according to Fisher.
Currently, packages coming to destinations in this area likely travel from delivery centers in the Harrisburg or Pittsburgh areas, Fisher said.
Amazon likely chose Altoona based on “logistic circles for delivery and outreach,” given the city’s location near the junction of I-99 and Route 22 — and the “connectivity” that enables, McKnight said.
“It makes us a pretty viable location,” he stated.
The availability of the former General Cable building also helps, McKnight said.
The startup of operations at the Altoona delivery center should allow for quicker deliveries of Amazon packages locally, said Greg Werstil, owner of the property, now known as Pleasant View Center.
Typically, workers in delivery stations take packages off tractor-trailers, do “sorting and picking” inside the building, then load individual packages into totes and onto “Prime” delivery vans, according to Fisher.
Amazon will be taking over 20,000 square feet on the right front section of the first floor of the Pleasant View Center, according to Werstil.
Workers have constructed office spaces and installed specialized equipment inside, while modifying loading docks outside, according to Rebecca Brown, Altoona’s director of codes and inspections.
The city issued a temporary certificate of occupancy a few weeks ago, Brown said.
It will issue a final certificate after Amazon takes care of a few minor matters, she said.
The news of Amazon’s presence in the area first came to public attention in November — but without details — when the city Code Appeals Board granted a variance eliminating the need for workers to undertake a problematic demolition at the Pleasant View Center in preparation for Amazon and another firm to become tenants.
Otherwise, Amazon has been “hiding in plain sight,” Pacifico said, noting the monthslong presence of a sign with the company’s name outside an entrance to the property — but far enough from the boulevard to be invisible to passing motorists.
The city has known about Amazon’s intentions for about nine months, according to Pacifico.
On Wednesday, someone from outside the area emailed congratulations to him for Amazon having chosen the city, the mayor said.
He wondered whether he’d missed the company’s long-expected official announcement of its local plans, he said.
He Googled “Amazon Altoona,” which generated results that showed job postings for the company connected with this area, and deemed that a sufficiently public exposure to justify posting the news on Instagram, he said.
At some point, jobs for the local delivery center will be posted on an Amazon webpage, according to Fisher.
“The flexibility across employment opportunities will be a welcome addition for a lot of job seekers,” McKnight said.
The Pleasant View Center, which sits on 13.5 acres and has previously been the site for Sylvania, Carol Cable and General Cable, has a total of 200,000 square feet of indoor space, according to Werstil.
Current tenants include Amazon, Hertz, Crowsnest Broadband, Student Transportation America and “a host of other commercial users,” Werstil said.
There are 65,000 square feet available on the first floor and 35,000 on the second floor for long-term warehousing, Werstil said.
Some of that space is currently occupied, but only by short-term tenants, he said.
There are also 20,000 square feet of office space on the first and second floors at the front, with windows to let in natural light.
The entire building has high-speed internet, according to Werstil.
There is also a mothers’ nursing room.
Werstil’s company, Energy Center Associates, bought the property in 2018.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.
