UPS delivers jobs to OKC just in time for the holiday rush

From The Oklahoman

UPS is delivering a couple hundred new jobs to Oklahoma City, and a new multimillion-dollar distribution center, just in time for the holidays.

\The shipping giant is opening a new facility at 8825 N Interstate 35 in developer Gardner Tanenbaum’s Britton Commerce Park, which has benefited from the explosion in speculative warehouse construction over the past few years. Speculative means started with no tenant signed.

It will employ 120 permanent workers, and offer another 100 seasonal jobs, UPS spokeswoman Becky Biciolis-Pace said.

The new UPS center is the latest industrial tenant to lease speculative space in OKC’s frothing but settling warehouse market. Van Hoose Construction Co. started construction on the building for Gardener Tanenbaum in November 2021, city records show.

In lease negotiations, industrial property brokers Brett Price, Kris Davis and Karley Harper, with OKC’s Newmark Robinson Park, represented Gardner Tanenbaum as landlord, and Cresa Global in Chicago represented UPS as tenant.

“We’re filling full- and part-time positions — primarily package handlers, supervisors and drivers — by offering competitive wages across multiple shifts,” she said.

Benefits include health care, retirement contributions and tuition assistance. Hourly pay starts at $21 for package handlers and $23 for drivers, depending on shift and position, and includes annual raises, she said. Interested applicants should apply at UPSJOBS.com.

The $39.6 million, 180,000-square-foot distribution center is fully automated and “more efficient by a third than older UPS facilities in the area, enabling the movement of 10K packages an hour,” Biciolis-Pace said. The daily dispatch will include 128 delivery drivers and 19 tractor-trailers, she said.

Service from the new warehouse will extend north and east and complement the UPS Customer Center hub at 901 S Portland Ave., the Shawnee Center and Stillwater Center, she said.