Amazon Plans 494 Layoffs as Port St. Lucie Facility Closes

Amazon plans to temporarily close its Port St. Lucie facility on Sept. 17, 2026, with a Florida Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing listing 494 employees affected by the scheduled separations.

The warehouse is located at 7600 LTC Parkway, just south of Midway Road. Amazon says the site will stop operating for about two years while the company carries out a major renovation and converts the building into a sortable fulfillment center.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s WARN database lists July 16, 2026, as the notice date and Sept. 17, 2026, as the separation date. The filing identifies workers scheduled to be affected by the action; it does not mean all 494 employees have already left the company.

A planned conversion of the warehouse

Amazon told WPTV and Supply Chain Dive that it plans to invest about $200 million in the Port St. Lucie project. The upgraded facility is intended to operate as a sortable fulfillment center, where employees pick, pack and ship customer orders.

The change would alter how the facility is used after the renovation. Amazon currently operates the site as a distribution facility, while the planned conversion is designed around the sortable fulfillment process. The company has described the closure as temporary rather than permanent.

Amazon expects the facility to reopen around 2028. The company has not announced an exact reopening date, so the two-year timeline and the 2028 target remain projections rather than a fixed return-to-operation schedule.

Hundreds of jobs affected during the closure

The immediate local consequence is the scheduled interruption of work for hundreds of people at one Port St. Lucie employer. The WARN record lists 494 affected employees, while Amazon’s statements describe a temporary shutdown lasting roughly two years.

Employees who remain through the scheduled closing date were reported to be eligible for four weeks of severance. They were also reported to qualify for a lump-sum payment equivalent to six months of health-insurance costs.

Those provisions do not change the distinction between scheduled and completed layoffs. The facility has not yet closed, and the final number of employees who actually leave will depend on events before the separation date.

Possible larger operation after reopening

Amazon has said the renovated facility could employ approximately 850 to 1,000 workers after it reopens. That figure is a future staffing projection, not a guaranteed workforce level or a confirmed count of net new jobs.

The projected employment range is also separate from the 494 employees listed in the WARN filing. The filing concerns the workers affected by the planned 2026 closure, while the 850-to-1,000 figure describes Amazon’s expected staffing at a later reopening under future hiring and operating conditions.

For Port St. Lucie, the project creates two distinct phases. The first is a scheduled loss of active work at the facility beginning in September 2026. The second is Amazon’s plan to return the site to service after renovation as a potentially larger sortable fulfillment center.

What happens next

The next major date is Sept. 17, 2026, when the scheduled separations and temporary closure are set to begin. Amazon’s stated plan is to spend about two years converting the building and resume operations around 2028.

As that date approaches, the key questions will be whether the closure begins as scheduled, how the renovation progresses and how many positions Amazon ultimately fills when the facility is ready to reopen. The current public plan establishes the investment, the intended use of the building and a projected employment range, but not a final reopening date or final staffing level.

Sources

• 2026 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Notices, Florida Department of Economic Opportunity
• Amazon facility to close for 2 years, potentially impacting 850 employees, WPTV
• Amazon to temporarily close Florida facility, lay off nearly 500, Supply Chain Dive

Look for updates to this story

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