By Sam Wroblewski 630wpro.com

The international retail giant Amazon has selected neighboring Fall River Massachusetts as the site for its newest New England distribution facility.

The new one million square-foot facility will be built on a 91 acre parcel of land between Fall River and Freetown. The facility will create 500 new, permanent, full-time jobs as well as additional part-time and seasonal work.

Executive Vice President of the Fall River Office of Economic Development Ken Fiola said what separated the city from the pack was its move-in-ready parcels of land.

“When you’re looking to construct a million-square-foot building in size there are not a lot of parcels of land that can actually meet that requirement that have all appropriate infrastructure, as well as have all permitting completed and pretty much ready to go,” said Fiola.

Fiola anticipates Amazon giving the city a big boost and becoming a catalyst for growth in the area, creating 200 to 300 additional jobs from other companies; growth he says will benefit Rhode Island workers.

“Inevitably there will be some people who will commute from Rhode Island into Fall River for employment purposes because we’re so close.”

The facility will only handle larger items like TVs, refrigerators, and the like, and that small orders will still be handled by other locations.

Fiola and others will be meeting with the Massachusetts Economic Assistance Coordinating Council to finalize additional state incentives to the local incentives already promised to Amazon.