Amazon will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking next week for a robotics fulfillment center that’s under construction in the Wilmington area.

According to an invite sent to local media on Wednesday, the groundbreaking for the robotics fulfillment center, which will be Amazon’s first in the area, is scheduled for March 12 at 10 a.m.

The event will include Holly Sullivan, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide economic development, and local leaders, including Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, Randy Burton, chairman of the Pender County Board of Commissioners, and Scott Satterfield, CEO of Wilmington Business Development.

“Amazon is bringing faster deliveries and jobs to Wilmington, NC with the announcement of its first robotics fulfillment center in the area,” the media invite stated.

Greg Rios, an Amazon public relations specialist, told the Business Journal earlier this year that the fulfillment center project broke ground in October on a more than 170-acre tract Amazon purchased last summer. The site was once home to the former BASF vitamin plant, which closed in 2009.

Plans for a delivery station slated for another 142,000-square-foot facility on 54 acres inside Pender Commerce Park is currently under review by Pender County.

Look for more details on the economic impact Amazon could have on the area in the March 7 issue of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal.