REVERE, Mass. (AP) — Amazon has opened a delivery center in a former Massachusetts candy factory famous for making Sweethearts and other classic confections.
The Seattle-based tech giant said Wednesday that some 200 people will start working at the former Necco factory in Revere, just north of Boston, this week.
The company has leased the 800,000-square-foot (74,300-square-meters) building to sort deliveries coming from its larger distribution centers before they’re sent out to area customers.
The opening makes Amazon the city’s largest employer, a title previously held by Necco.
Revere and Boston had unsuccessfully pitched the former Suffolk Downs horse track as a potential site for Amazon’s planned second headquarters.
Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who represents the city, said the center provides a welcome boost to the local economy. Massachusetts had the highest unemployment rate in the nation in June, at more than 17%.
Necco, short for the New England Confectionery Company, was the country’s oldest continuously operating candy company before it abruptly shuttered in 2018.
More than 200 workers were laid off, and its brands, including Sweethearts, its namesake wafers, and the Sky Bar, were sold.
The 50-acre property is owned by Clarion Partners, a New York real estate investment company that bought it for $355 million earlier this year.
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