Target says it plans to add about 450 jobs at its DeKalb distribution center over the next several months. That will more than double employment at the site.
DeKalb Mayor John Rey says the distribution center’s general manager told the City Council of Target’s plans at its meeting Monday night (Jan. 11). Rey says the facility, built in 2006, is being expanded, and converted to what the company calls an upstream distribution center. That means it will distribute goods to nine other centers supplying more than 600 stores across a region reaching down to Texas. It will also handle products where demand varies, such as seasonal merchandise. Target says it expects to fill the new positions locally. Rey says the expansion will provide a welcome boost, and a rare one, to the local economy.
“It adds an opportunity for 400 individuals to achieve a living wage in the DeKalb community. 400 [new] jobs have not happened every year,” he says.
Rey says a big expansion with this many jobs makes a strong statement.
“They don’t happen at the drop of a hat. Target Corporation obviously values their presence in the DeKalb location to the extent that they’re willing to invest an additional $50 million of capital,” he says.
DeKalb landed the center in 2006 with the help of several million dollars’ worth of tax credits, but Rey says the current expansion was all the company’s doing. The center currently employs about 350 people. Target says, by May, more than 800 people will work there.
