Regional leaders for the online retailer Amazon, as well as state and local officials, converged on Caribou Wednesday morning for the grand opening of the e-commerce giant’s first facility in Maine, a 13,000-square-foot delivery station in the Aroostook County city.
Several people spoke at the ceremony, including Jonathan Greeley, Amazon’s head of economic development for New England and Virginia, and Gov. Janet Mills, who was in the region Wednesday visiting local businesses and organizations.
“Today marks a meaningful milestone not just for Amazon, but for rural communities across northern Maine,” Greeley said. “It’s a perfect example of how strategic investments in smaller cities and towns create significant positive impacts.”
The delivery station has been open since Aug. 14, serving Caribou and later Fort Fairfield as a part of Amazon’s $4 billion effort to expand its last mile network and speed up deliveries in rural communities. On Wednesday, Greeley announced that the station is now delivering to Presque Isle.
At full operation, officials said the facility would be able to handle deliveries within a 60-mile radius, a capacity they hope to reach. That means the company could eventually be delivering packages as far north as Fort Kent and as far south as Houlton.
The delivery station currently employs close to 10 workers across several shifts, site lead Skyler Hysler said, and it has contracts with around 200 drivers who deliver packages in their personal vehicles through the Amazon Flex program.
Currently, the facility is delivering around 900 packages daily, Hysler said, with an eventual goal of close to 7,000.
“That’ll ultimately come as we get more known out here and we get more flexible,” Hysler said. “It’s usually a slow buildup, allowing for the sort center and the fulfillment center to be able to build up to that as well.”
During a tour of the delivery station, Hysler and other company officials showed off renovations that turned the property at 33 Aldrich Drive into a warehouse fit for Amazon. The site is the former home of Aroostook Steel Co., and was used for storage before Amazon signed a 10-year lease in October 2024, property owner Gagnon’s Rental Properties told the Bangor Daily News in July.
The renovations were estimated to cost just over $4.4 million, according to a building permit obtained by the BDN.
Speaking before an audience that included many Aroostook leaders, including County Commissioner Paul Underwood and most of the Caribou City Council, Mills referenced her ties to the region. She reflected on visiting her grandparents in Ashland as a child and what they would think of how far online retail and delivery services have progressed.
“They would be both kind of awed and enthralled to think that you can order a package online from anywhere in the world and have it on your doorstep in just two days time with Amazon Prime,” Mills said.
From start to finish, Amazon’s expansion to Caribou was a more than two-year process that City Manager Penny Thompson and the city dubbed “Project Moose.”
Thompson and other officials worked closely with the company and Maine & Co., a nonprofit that aims to bring new business investment and job creation into the state by connecting companies with a network of resources.
“From day one, we’ve worked with this company to ensure that they had what they needed to succeed here, and the results have already been impressive,” Thompson said Wednesday. “Our residents are enjoying both faster deliveries and new flexible job opportunities. What’s particularly gratifying is seeing Amazon recognize what we have always known: Caribou’s strategic location and talented workforce make us an excellent partner for business.”
During the ceremony, the company also announced a $10,000 donation to the Caribou Performing Arts Center, a gift accepted by RSU 39 Superintendent Jane McCall.
Amazon is looking at further investment in Maine, officials said Wednesday, though Greeley declined to offer specifics. Gorham agreed to sell 93.9 acres along Route 25 to the company in late August for $4 million. The company has not yet said what it would do with that property.
“We’ve been working tirelessly throughout Maine to evaluate opportunities and engage local officials and organizations like the Chamber [of Commerce] and Maine & Co. to pursue that,” Greeley said.
