Amazon's massive fulfillment center on LTC Parkway in Port St. Lucie went dark today, closing its doors for a two-year renovation that has left nearly 500 workers without jobs. The facility, known internally as PBI3, employed workers who packed and shipped large items since opening, and its shutdown marks one of the largest single-day job losses the Treasure Coast has seen in years.
Amazon filed a WARN notice with Florida officials in July listing 494 affected employees, and the vast majority, 466 workers, held entry-level “FC Associate I” warehouse positions, according to WPEC. The remaining roles included operations managers, human resources staff, a safety specialist, and IT support associates, per the same filing details reported by TreasureCoast.com. Affected workers do not belong to a union and hold no bumping rights that might have let them claim other positions within the company.
Amazon has publicly described the closure as temporary, a two-year project to install advanced robotics and artificial intelligence capabilities before reopening in the second half of 2028. But the company's own filing with Florida authorities categorizes the action as a permanent facility closure, since federal WARN Act rules define any layoff lasting more than six months as permanent, according to Supply Chain Dive. That gap between corporate messaging and legal paperwork has already drawn outside scrutiny.
Severance, Transfers and a Legal Investigation
Around 300 employees are expected to take severance rather than relocate. Workers who stayed on payroll through today's closing date were offered four weeks of pay plus a lump sum covering six months of Amazon's health insurance costs, the report notes. More than 200 workers transferred to other Amazon locations, though local options were limited since the company's only other Treasure Coast facilities are smaller delivery stations in Port St. Lucie and Jupiter.
In July, class-action law firm Strauss Borrelli PLLC published a WARN Act investigation concerning Bechtel Power Corporation. Federal law requires covered employers to provide written notice two months before mass layoffs, and the firm's inquiry centers on whether that timeline was met.
Local Officials Pivot to Job Fairs and Small Business
CareerSource Research Coast has held job fairs to connect affected workers with new employers, and the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County has helped facilitate those connections. Council representative Cathy Townsend said her focus going forward would shift more toward small businesses, telling reporters, “We need to be more strategic on the companies we want coming here.” Townsend added that the closure underscores the importance of attracting a wider range of businesses to the county rather than leaning heavily on a handful of major employers.
Workers who lost their jobs today remain eligible for rehire once the facility reopens, according to the Economic Development Council. Amazon has said it plans to hire more than 1,000 employees when the modernized site comes back online, and other Amazon facilities will absorb operations during the renovation period. Amazon has said it does not expect the closure to impact customers.
Supply Chain Ripples and a Bigger Payoff Down the Road
The closure forces Amazon to re-route inbound inventory for South Florida ZIP codes to regional distribution hubs in Georgia and Alabama, according to research from Nova Analytics, which noted PBI3 had anchored much of Amazon's last-mile fulfillment capacity for the region. Amazon does not expect the move to impact customers. The closure is also part of a broader statewide adjustment; Amazon temporarily shuttered a facility in Homestead earlier this year to convert it into a sortable fulfillment center, per Supply Chain Dive.
The $200 million renovation will add 870,000 square feet to the facility's mezzanine level, pushing its taxable value to roughly $300 million and generating an estimated $3 million in additional annual tax revenue for local government entities once complete, per TreasureCoast.com's reporting. The original facility was built without local tax abatements. The Amazon site sits within Port St. Lucie's Southern Grove industrial corridor, a 3,605-acre stretch along Interstate 95 the city acquired in 2018 to create local jobs, a corridor that has since drawn major employers and fueled nearby apartment construction, as previously reported by Hoodline.
