ECONOMY

Dollar General plans $168m distribution center in southeast Salem

Dollar General is planning a 901,000 square foot distribution center as part of the Mill Creek Corporate Center, a large transportation and warehouse hub in southeast Salem.

The $168 million facility would provide regional dry goods and cold storage space for the discount retailer, which operates more than 80 stores in Oregon with 750 employees, according to a company news release.

The project has been several years in the making, said Erik Andersson, president of SEDCOR, the Salem-area economic development nonprofit.

Andersson said the company first approached them in early 2019 seeking land for a facility and visited Salem to inspect the area.

“It’s a good project that’s been in the works for a long time. We’re happy that they’ve settled in on Salem as a location,” said Andersson.

The location, 4770 Logistics St S.E., is part of a 600 acre enterprise area jointly developed by the state and city to serve industrial and warehousing businesses. The area includes distribution warehouses for Amazon, FedEx and Home Depot and has property tax incentives to encourage development.

The warehouse would be built on a 70.5 acre parcel which is currently an undeveloped field, according to a project statement filed with the city.

The company received approval for the site plan in March, city permitting records show. Building permits for the facility are under review and construction has yet to begin, said Lisa Anderson-Ogilvie, the city’s planning administrator.

The land is state-owned and will be sold to Dollar General, she said.

The timeline on the project isn’t clear. In a July news release, Dollar General said it planned to begin construction in the fall, but did not respond to multiple emails from Salem Reporter seeking an updated estimate.

The company also did not respond to questions about the construction timeline or how many people the facility would employ once opened.

Andersson said he expected construction would take about a year once it begins.

He said the distribution and warehouse industry is fast growing regionally, and includes a number of skilled jobs including commercial truck drivers, logistics coordinators and people working on software to manage large centers.

“There can be lots of different skillsets in addition to workers who are moving pallets around,” he said. “We’ll be curious to see what their mix is and what they plan to be doing.”

Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.