Amazon has made several headlines over the past couple of years, but the announcement of their new Operations Center of Excellence does mean big news for job seekers in Nashville and surrounding areas. Here’s a look at how the new Amazon facility can impact your job search.

Amazon’s Eastern U.S. Hub

While Seattle and New York/Virginia will hold Amazon’s HQ locations, Nashville will serve as the company’s Retail Operations division, which will be located in downtown Nashville, just north of The Gulch. The one million square foot office space will house the tech and management functions of the Retail Operations division, including customer fulfillment, customer service, transportation, and supply chain, amongst others. It’s considered a total game-changer for the city and surrounding communities. For those seeking out new job opportunities in the greater Nashville area, Amazon’s Operations Center of Excellence may be the news you’ve been waiting to hear.

Job Growth

Amazon is making an estimated $623 million capital investment over seven years and creating 5,000 net new full-time jobs with an average pay of $76.32 an hour, which is more than $150,000 a year. The company is set to start hiring later this year. Amazon said its new office will provide technology and management for its retail operations division, which handles customer service, transportation, the supply chain and fulfillment of online orders. The company hasn’t detailed, however, what types of jobs will be needed — how many software engineers, for instance, or managers will make up the 5,000 positions. And it’s not just Amazon jobs that will see a spike in growth due to the announcement. This operations center is projected to create more than 13,000 jobs for Tennessee’s workforce. Other businesses in the area will also see an increase in demand to support the growth of the retail giant. This may include anything from hospitality to recreation to business consulting. Only time will tell how many ancillary jobs are created because of the new operations center.

Nashville Housing

As would make sense with such massive growth in Nashville’s workforce, housing may prove to be a challenge. The addition of thousands of more white-collar employees to the city, both from Amazon and other companies, could push up housing prices, experts say. Some neighborhoods and types of homes could be in more demand — and potentially command a higher price — depending on how Amazon recruits its employees, and the types of jobs they fill. The effects, though, will be diffused over years, which is welcome news for many struggling to afford housing.

Many employees will likely look to live in the urban core, within a short commute to Downtown. A third of the Amazon employees are expected to walk or bike to work, according to Nashville Mayor David Briley. Housing within a 30-minute drive of downtown is expected to get the biggest price boost to meet the growing demand for housing. As Nashville is still considered reasonably affordable, the majority of workers are expected to buy in the long term which will provide a boost to the housing economy for the region, but could provide challenges for job seekers looking to maintain a reasonable cost of living rate while they are in between jobs.

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